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A  WORLD  OF  WONDERS. 


/:/^ 


liidiis/icd  /ivJ^cfSe/c  S.lJ<jv/\ 
BOSTON  ♦ 


A 

WORLD  OF  WONDERS ; 

OR 

DIVERS  DEVELOPMENTS, 

SHOWING   THE 

THOROUGH  TRIUMPH 

ANIMAL  magnetism' 

IN 

NEW  ENGLAND. 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE 

POWER    OF    PREVISION 

IN 

MRS.  MATILDA  FOX, 

AND  THE 

POINT   OF    THE    PE^XIL, 

BY 

.     .    .         D.  C.  JOHNSTON. 


BY    JOEL    R.    PEABOUY,    M. 

Fellow  of  the  College  of  'Pothecaries. 


"  Wise  mOT  suffer,  good  men  grieve, 
Knaves  invent,  and  fools  believe  ; 
Help  U3,  ye  Powers  1  send  aid  unto  us, 
Or  knaves  and  fools  will  quite  undo  us. 

Tliird  Edition. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY   ROBERT   S.   DAVIS, 

No.  77  Washington  Street. 

1838. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1838,  by 

Robert  S,  Davis, 
in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen^ — 

Those  already  believing  in  the 
phenomena  of  Animal  Magnetism,  of 
Avhich  this  production  expressly  treats, 
will  have  no  occasion  for  reading  it 
to  confirm  their  faith.  Persons  not 
open  to  cdnviction,  can  derive  no  ben- 
efit from  the  developments  Avhich 
characterize  the  memoh\ 

It  is  ardently  desired  that  Col. 
Stone,  of  New- York,  will  not  prefix 
notes,  or  add  an  appendix  to  any  of. 


IV  PREFACE. 

the  numerous  editions  through  which 
this  volume  is  predestined  to  run; 
and  lastly,  the  author  presents  his  best 
respects  to  the  fraternity  of  poets, 
humbly  beseeching  them  not  to  make 
a  theatrical  spectacle  of  his  scientific 
efforts,  till  after  the  termination  of 
the  Seminole  War. 

JOEL  R.  PEABODY. 

Boston,  February,  1838. 


CONTENTS, 

Chapter.  Page. 

I. — Miscellaneous  Developments.  5 

II. — A  Philosophical  Experiment.  24 

III.— Interesting  Discoveries.  36 

IV. — Something  Surprising.  47 

V. — Researches  in  the  Mounds,  55 

VI. — Pathological  Inquiries.  67 

VII. — Peeps  at  great  People.  78 

VIII.— Wonders  of  other  Worlds.  87 

IX.— Extraordinary  Sights.  105 

X.— Unthought  of  Matters.  126 

XI.— A  Jaunt  to  the  Sun.  134 

XII. — Local  Learning.  146 


CHAPTER  I. 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 


Notwithstanding  the  contradictory  state- 
ments of  physicians  in  relation  to  the  phenomena 
of  Animal  Magnetism,  and  in  the  face  of  that 
most  potent  of  all  engines,  the  ridicule  and  mis- 
representations of  its  foes,  the  writer  of  the  fol- 
lowing pages  has  felt  it  his  duty  to  present  the 
community  the  results  of  his  own  observations  in 
this  splendid  field  of  philosophy,  with  a  hope  that 
candid  inquirers,  solicitous  for  the  progress  of 
truth,  will  give  him  an  impartial  reading. 

For  more  than  a  year  after  Mons.  Poyen  had 
began  to  excite  the  public  attention  by  his  lec- 
tures, I  had  so  little  confidence  in  the  preten- 
tions of  magnetizers,  that  I  scarcely  read  a  para- 
graph of  all  that  was  reported  of  his  extraordina- 
ry powers  in  this  newly-discovered  domain.  In- 
deed, the  innumerable  and  surprising  exhibitions 
I 


6       MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS. 

in  Europe,  as  well  as  in  New  England,  since 
the  revivificaiion  of  Animal  Magnetism  from  the 
profonnd  slumber  into  which  it  was  thrown  by 
our  countryman,  Dr.  Franklin,  and  his  learned 
associates  of  France,  did  not  even  begin  to  inter- 
est me  ;  nor,  in  fact,  had  I  any  confidence  in  the 
various  reports,  till  an  accidental  circumstance, 
in  itself,  not  very  important,  completely  changed 
my  views.  If  I  was  at  one  time  a  decided,  un- 
compromisirjg  sceptic,  the  change  wrought  on 
my  mind  to  make  me  a  believer,  nay,  a  warm 
disciple  and  a  magnetizer,  was  a  slow  process.. 

After  having  had  many  personal  interviews 
with  the  magneiizers  of  Rhode  Island,  I  am  fully 
persuaded  of  their  honest  endeavors  to  promote 
the  cause  of  philanthropy  as  well  as  science  ;  yet 
I  have  not  been  influenced  to  receive  anything  on 
hearsay;  on  the  contrary,  alone,  as  it  were, 
unaided  by  the  experience  of  others,  and  solely 
intent  on  the  momentous  question,  Is  there  any 
deception  or  not,  in  all  this  1 — The  results  of  my 
inquiry  are  now  given  to  the  world. 

Surely,  no  person  of  common  honesty  could 
peruse  Dr.  Belden's  narrative  of  Jane  C.  Rider, 
and  discredit  it.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  be  in  com- 
pany with  Miss  Bracket,  and  not  at  once  discov- 
er that  she  is  an  abused,  injured   woman.     Her 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  / 

powers  are  of  a  marvellous  character,  and  be- 
cause they  are  so,  and  but  a  few  or  no  cases  on 
record  are  precisely  like  it,  tlie  whole  coun- 
try, forsooth,  joins  in  the  persecution,  and  pro- 
nounce her   an   impostor. 

Again, — The  lady  in  Stanstead,  Lower  Cana- 
da, whose  faculty  of  seeing  through  opaque  bo- 
dies, however  dense  or  thick,  was  at  first  disput- 
ed, but  was  ultimately  completely  established.* 

As  before  remarked,  I  have  been  alone  in  my 
investigations,  so  far  as  it  regards  the  presence 
of  those  prepared,  by  their  education  and  sci- 
ence, to  analyze  the  subject.  For  a  long  time  I 
have  carefully  watched,  and  patiently  listened  to 
the  accounts  of  others  ;  still,  had  not  my  own 
eyes,  and  my  own  individual  understiinding  been 
perfectly  satisfied,  I  should  Jiot  have  ventured 
upon  tlie  liazardous  enterprise  of  appearing  in 
the  character  of  an  author.     I  neither  court  no- 

*  Perhaps  the  reader  is  not  aware  that  this  case  quite 
surpassed  ihe  somnambulists  of  Providence.  None  of 
those  can  perceive  objects  beyond  the  ordinary  compass  of 
human  vision,  unless  the  soul  leaves  the  body  with  one  of 
the  five  senses  in  train,  viz.  the  eye-sight.  Mrs.  Carr,  on 
the  other  hand,  reniai;:cil,  both  body  and  spirit,  on  terra 
firma,— lieing  abundantly  able  to  see  at  all  distances,  and 
through  all  bodies,  however  compact,  thick,  dark  or  ob- 
scurelv  located. 


8  MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 

toriety  in  this  way,  nor  am  I  afraid  to  relate 
what  is  true,  because  it  is  a  novelty. 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  gross  impositions  which 
have  of  late  been  practised  by  unprincipled  ad- 
venturers,* with  the  expectation  of  realizing  a 
profit  in  wholesaling  falsehood.  We  are  not  to 
give  credit  to  all  the  extravagant  declarations  of 
somnambulists,  whose  revelations  are  nothing 
more  than  the  workings  of  a  vivid  imagination. 

Many  who  have  been  operated  upon  by  hon- 
est, scientific  magnetizers,  have  been,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  self-deceived.  Such,  however,  is  the 
constitution  of  the  mind,  that,  under  novel  modes 

*  Perhaps  all  my  readers  have  not  heard  that  a  fellow 
by  the  name  of  Durant,  a  rope-maker,  of  Jersey  city,  has 
attempted  to  blast  the  untainted  reputation  of  several  ex- 
cellent ladies,  by  trying  to  make  out  that  they  were  mag- 
netic impostors.  He  is  not  to  be  credited  on  a  single 
point.  About  the  year  1830,  this  same  popinjay  made  a 
ridiculous  show  of  himself  in  an  air-balloon,  in  which  he 
ascended  from  Boston  common,  in  the  presence  of  more 
than  fifty  boys  and  loafers.  The  voyage  terminated  at 
sea,  some  where  near  Portland,  where  he  was  found  up 
10  his  knees  in  water.  It  was  fully  understood,  by  those 
who  knew  him  best,  that  ihe  great  height  to  which  he  was 
elevated  by  a  bag  of  wind,  something  over  ten  rods,  per- 
pendicular altitude,  made  him  giddy,  and  he  fell  out  of 
the  basket  upon  his  head,  which,  being  cracked  before, 
was  quite  ruined,  as  his  late  publication  shows,  by  the 
fall. 


MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS.       \) 

of  excitement,  the  imagination  oversteps  the 
boundaries  of  sober  reason,  and,  in  the  wildness 
of  unrestrained  fancy,  verily  conceives  the  crea- 
tions of  its  own  vagaries  to  be  solid  fabrics  of 
reality.*  In  my  intercourse  with  those  suscep- 
tible to  the  magnetic  touch,  1  liave  found  some 
who  were  affected  in  one  way,  and  others  in  an- 
other; but  there  has  been  a  uniformity,  in  cer- 
tain respects,  in  the  phenomena. 

Being  in  Boston,  in  July  last,  on  business 
which  obligred  me  to  remain  over  six  weeks,  to 
dance  attendance  on  a  court  of  law,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  a  few  friends,  who  were 
disposed  to  make  the  time  pass  as  pleasantly 
with  me  as  the  circumstance  of  being  at  the 
mercy  of  a  party  of  Boston  lawyers  would  admit, 
— the  veriest  sharks  on  the  continent, — 1  culti- 
vated an  agreeable  acquaintance  with  many  of 
the  most  eminent  physicians  of  the  city. 

In  the    course   of  occasional   conversation  at 

*  Some  beautiful  thoughts  upon  nothing  at  all,  suppos- 
ed, by  their  author,  to  be  deeply  metaphysical,  may  be 

seen  in  Dr.  B 's  latest  miscarriage, — The  Intluence 

of  Religion,  &c.  For  the  profundity  of  his  ignorance,  in 
anatomy,  a  School  of  Medicine  have  given  him  a  place 
in  the  conclave  of  jackasses,  called,  by  way  of  eminence. 
Faculty. 

1* 


10  MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 

the  house  of  Dr.  B.,  distinguished  for  his  ad- 
vanced standing  in  the  profession,  though  nnodest 
and  retiring  as  a  child,  we  spoke  of  Animal 
Magnetism,  then  exceedingly  rife ;  and,  as  on 
all  former  occasions,  I  at  once  made  myself 
quite  merry  with  all  its  advocates.  For  the  first 
time,  to  my  extreme  mortification,  I  had  step- 
ped upon  forbidden  ground  ;  the  Dr.  answering 
me  with  a  singular  air  of  gravity,  that  it  was  too 
late  in  the  day  to  offer  opposition  to  the  progress 
of  a  well-established  science.*  He  had  not  cyily 
been  in  close  correspondence  with  Mons.  Poyen, 
but  had  subscribed  for  the  Nantucket  Requirer, 
under  the  editorial  charge  of  the  Hon.  Mr.  Jeks, 
which  he  considered  to  be  the  only  independent 
paper  in  America.  He,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Jeks,  was 
a  firm  supporter  of  the  cause,  and  a  man  compe- 

*  Dr.  B.  exercises  the  same  talismanic  influence  over  his 
patients  that  he  maintains  over  the  juniors  of  the  profes- 
sion. The  acuteness  of  his  pathological  acquirements 
have  long  been  the  admiration  of  the  better  classes  of  so- 
ciety. It  was  this  gentleman  who  discovered  a  tape-worm 
in  an  alderman's  leg.  In  his  youth,  he  commenced  the 
practice  of  medicine  in  the  metropolis  of  New  England, 
under  every  species  of  discouragement,  but  finally  tri 
umphed  over  them  all.  To  his  genius  are  farriers  indebt- 
ed for  the  beautiful  idea  of  docking  colts  in  utero,  so  that, 
post  partem,  they  will  ever  make  an  admirable  appearance. 


MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS.      11 

tent  to  fathom  the  whole  arcanum  of  the  learn- 
ed. 

Since  then,  I  have  looked  into  the  merits  of 
the  Nantucket  paper,  and  am  happy  to  find  it  all 
my  friend  had  the  independence  to  represent. 
While  the  Boston  presses,  to  a  fault,  were  either 
silent,  when  the  very  atmosphere  carried  the  in- 
telligence, or  disposed  to  cast  a  halo  of  ridicule 
around  those  devoted  to  philosophical  specula- 
tions, involving  the  truth  or  falsity  of  Animal 
Magnetism,  the  Nantucket  people  manifested 
the  noblest  ardor  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  hu- 
manity, by  giving  their  entire  patronage  to  the 
Requirer — which  never  would  have  been  done 
with  such  unparalleled  unanimity,  had  the  eru- 
dite editor  shown  the  least  unwillingness  to  sus- 
tain the  dignity  of  the  Island  in  this  particu- 
lar.* 

*  Mr.  Jeks  is  an  uncommonly  laborious  scholar.  It  is 
rising  of  sixty  years  since  he  first  became  extensively 
known  throughout  the  United  States  by  a  masterly  trea- 
tise on  whale-oil,  in  which  he  humanely  proposed  to  take 
those  mighty  animals  by  bowlings— or,  a  slip-noose  over 
their  tails,  instead  of  cruelly  butchering  them  with  har- 
poons. When  brought  aloncf-side,  the  sperm  was  to  be 
drauTi  from  the  skull  through  their  ears,  by  an  air-pump. 
Being  exceedingly  corpulent,  but  restrained  from  taking 
as  much  exercise  as  a  due  performance  of  his  bodily  func- 


12  MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 

Through  the  instrumentality  of  Dr.  B.,  I  was 
brought  in  contact  with  other  professional  gen- 
tlemen of  the  city,  who,  as  a  general  rule,  were 
disposed  to  look  favorably  upon  the  all-engross- 
ing topic.  Among  others,  Dr.  E.  was  not  the 
least  conspicuous.  He  had  not  only  had  sever- 
al patients  who  were  natural  somnambulists,  but 
he  had  ascertained  that  he  could  actually  pro- 
duce the  somnambulic  slumber.  A  reference 
was  made  to  some  half  dozen  families  in  which 
he  practised,  for  evidence  of  his  success.  This 
was  not  all, — I  was  invited,  to  my  great  delight, 
to  witness,  in  persona3,  an  exhibition  of  his  con- 
trolling power  over  the  senses  of  others.* 

By  an  express  invitation,  on  a  sunny  afternoon 
near  the  first  of  August,  accompanied  by  Dr.  B., 
I  called  on  a  fashionable  family,  in  a  fashionable 
section  of  the  city,  to  have  an  introduction  to  a 

tions  require,  he  has  resorted,  within  the  last  year,  to 
playing  a  hurdy-gurdy,  on  which  he  is  without  a  rival. 
Vide, — his  proposals  for  publishing  monthly,  by  subscrip- 
tion, the  Psychodinamist,  or  the  Bulletin  of  Animal  Mag- 
netism in  America. 

*  No  one  would  ever  suspect  that  this  accomplished  phy- 
sician could  be  duped  ;  he  is  too  well  guarded  by  the  nat- 
ural endowments,  vulgarly  called  moiher-wit.  The  sto- 
ry told  at  his  expense,  how  he  purchased  a  horse  with  a 
wooden  tail,  is  not  true. 


MISCELLANEOUS   DEVELOPMENTS. 


13 


Mrs,  Matilda  Fox,  who  was  reported  to  possess 
second  sight — or  faculty  of  exercising  a  tele- 
scopic vision. 

The  Scotch  notion,  that  a  person  having  the 
gift  of  second  sight  can  foretel  events,  as  they 
are  predestined  to  occur  from  the  beginning  of 
time,  belongs  only  to  the  lower  orders.  Intelli- 
gent, reflecting  persons,  in  that  country,  enter- 
tain no  such  opinions;  but,  that  the  individual 
so  blessed  can  embrace  an  unlimited  field  of  vis- 
ion with  his  natural  eyes,  has  never  been  ques- 
tioned. 

I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  second 
sight  and  Animal  Magnetism  are  essentially  the 
same,  because  the  phenomena  are  precisely  of 
the  same  character.  There  is  also  a  disease 
known  by  the  term  catalepsy,  which  completely 
prostrates  the  muscular  system,  the  will  not  be- 
ing able  to  exercise  the  slightest  influence  over 
the  nerves  of  volition  while  the  paroxysm  con- 
tinues. During  a  continuance  of  a  fit,  a  fact  fa- 
miliar to  every  practitioner  of  medicine,  the 
mind  roams,  as  it  were,  with  unrestrained  free- 
dom, apparently  disembodied.  Now  the  phe- 
nomena in  these  instances  are  exactly  like  those 
in  the  other  cases. 

Dr.  B.  was  quite  happy  in  making  all  at  ease 


14 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 


with  each  other,  which  gave  me  an  opportunity 
of  saying  that  curiosity  had  prompted  me  to  seek 
the  interview.  In  doing  it,  however,  I  had  not 
the  slightest  confidence  in  the  stories  related  to 
me  of  her  prevision. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  advert  to  the  various  top- 
ics of  conversation  discoursed  upon,  from  one  pe- 
riod to  another,  while  my  intercourse  continued 
with  Mrs.  Fox's  polite  and  agreeable  family  cir- 
cle. My  obligations  are  acknowledged  for  the 
hundredth  time. 

A  history  of  the  discovery  of  the  miraculous 
endowment  of  clairvoyance  in  this  city,  is  sub- 
stantially as  follows  : — 

Some  time  in  March  last,  the  discovery 
was  first  made,  and  in  this  accidental  manner. 
As  Mrs.  Fox  was  resting  herself  in  an  easy  pos- 
ture, in  a  stuffed  rocking-chair,  at  the  close  of  a 
long  evening,  a  favorite  cat,  which  has  long  been 
a  family  pet,  luxuriating,  whenever  she  chose, 
on  the  parlor-rug,  sprang  into  the  lap  of  her  mis- 
tress, as  she  had  frequently  done  before, — but  as 
she  never  had,  till  then, — after  adjusting  herself, 
commenced  licking  Mrs.  Fox's  neck,  just  over 
the  larynx,  that  protuberance  in  front  of  the 
throat,  known,  in  anatomical  works,  as  the  po- 
mum  adami.    Now  the  larynx  is  that  natural  en- 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  15 

largement  or  vocal  box  in  which  those  cords  vi- 
brate that  produce  voice.  As  the  cat  was  not 
particularly  interrupted,  and  the  sensation  being 
somewhat  agreeable,  Mrs.  Fox  was  gradually 
but  positively  and  completely  bereft  of  the  pow- 
er of  volition  in  the  short  period  of  a  i^tiw 
minutes.  When  she  essayed  to  raise  one  of  her 
hands  to  thrust  the  cat  away,  she  was  utterly  un- 
able to  accomplish  it.  Her  mind  was  intensely 
vigorous,  and  she  was  perfectly  conscious  of  eve- 
ry transaction  iti  the  room.  In  this  condition 
she  continued  sitting  full  two  hours,  apparently 
all  the  while  in  a  deep  sleep.  No  one  tiiought 
of  awaking  her,  though  seven  persons  were  seat- 
ed round  a  centre  table,  because  it  was  thought 
by  her  daughters  that  she  was  uncommonly  fa- 
tigued. I  must  be  allowed  to  digress  a  little 
here,  in  order  to  portray  the  character  of  this 
excellent  woman. 

Mrs.  Fox  is  a  lady  of  cultivated  mind,  and  has 
always  enjoyed  the  enviable  reputation  of  being 
both  judicious  and  perfectly  consistent  in  all  the 
various  relations  of  life.  From  childhood  she 
was  strictly  educated  conformably  to  the  re- 
quisitions of  a  rigid  system  of  religious  faith  : 
in  fact,  she  belongs  to  the  Orthodox  profession. 
When  my  acquaintance  commenced  w  ith  tiiis  la- 
dy,who  is  destined  to  fill  no  small  space  in  the  pub- 


16         ,    MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS. 

lie  eye,  through  future  ages,  she  had  passed  the 
forty-seventh  year  of  her  age.  A  fine  family  of 
three  daughters  and  two  sons,  besides  her  hus- 
band, Amasa  A.  Fox,  Esq.,*  with  the  exception 
of  a  retinue  of  servants,  constituted  the  house- 
hold. 

Devoted  to  the  exercise  of  the  domestic  duties, 
living  by  themselves,  within  themselves,  yet 
known  for  their  liberality  and  benevolent  exer- 
tions in  all  philanthropic  movements  for  meliora- 
ting the  condition  of  the  poor,  the  distressed  or 
the  needy,  they  would  not  have  been  known  as 
they  must  now  necessarily  be,  to  the  world,  had 
it  not  have  been  for  the  simple  circumstanceof  the 

*Amasa  A.  Fox,  referred  to  by  permission,  was  born  at 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  but  in  early  life  became  clerk  to  a 
grocer  in  Green  Street.  From  small  means,  he  has  truly 
been  the  architect  of  his  fame  and  fortune.  For  many 
years  in  succession,  the  enterprise  he  displayed  in  manu- 
facturing lamp-black,  will  be  remembered  in  Lynn  with 
heart-felt  gratitude.  Subsequently,  he  became  a  candi- 
date for  a  standing  committee-man,  to  regulate  a  city 
which  he  had  contributed  to  raise  to  its  present  rank  and 
independence.  A  deputation  of  shoe-makers  presented 
him  an  enormous  boot,  filled  with  a  kind  of  buttery  soup, 
quaintly  enough  called,  in  Nevir  Hampshire,  Stewed  Qua- 
ker. The  boot  is  still  kept  as  a  mammoth  trophy,  in  South 
Market  Street. 


MISCELLAxNEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  17 

cat.  Mr.  Fox  has  an  easy  fortune,  though  he 
still  conducts  an  extensive  maritime  trade  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

Nothing,  therefore,  is  more  certain  than  this,— 
that  nothing  could  be  gained  by  practising  a  de- 
ception of  any  kind.  Certainly,  for  a  mother, 
of  all  beings,  to  deliberately  impose  upon  her  own 
children,  without  the  slightest  advantage  accru- 
ing from  the  deceit,  is  without  a  precedent. 

These  are  preliminaries  which  I  am  solicitous 
to  have  clearly  understood,  because  the  credibil- 
ity of  Mrs.  Fox  must  entirely  outweigh  any  slan- 
derous imputations  which  hereafter  might  be 
suggested,  and,  also,  give  a  greater  degree  of 
character  to  the  facts  and  observations  she  has 
collected  in  illustration  of  very  many  obscure 
points  in  geology,  meteorology,  physics,  and  as- 
tronomy. 

But  to  return.  Although  the  exciting  cause 
of  this  singular  soporific  condition  of  the  volun- 
tary muscles  was  removed,  the  cat  having  qui- 
etly gone  also  to  sleep  on  her  knee,  the  active 
mind  of  Mrs.  Fox  was  still  maintained  in  a  most 
unaccountable  state  of  exaltation,  as  agreeable 
as  it  was  strange. 

As  before  observed,  though  totally  unable,  by 
an  act  of  the  sensorium,  to  move  a  limb, — being 
2 


18      MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS. 

actually  in  a  cataleptic  fit,  lier  thouglits  were  to 
an  extraordinary  degree  active.  Instead  of  sim- 
ply contemplating  the  company  present,  as  would 
seem  to  have  been  more  natural,  she  was  struck 
with  the  new  fact,  that  there  were  no  appreciable 
limitations  to  her  extent  of  vision.  Whatever 
she  thought  of,  if  it  had  a  tangible  existence, 
why  it  was  instantly  seen,  not  circumscribed  in 
outline  and  compressed  to  the  dimensions  of  the 
parlor,  but  the  proportions  were  correct.  She 
compared  it  to  a  panoramic  view  ;  all  was  fiesh, 
vivid,  animated.  For  example: — She  has  a 
brother  to  whom  she  is  tenderly  attached,  de- 
voted to  the  hazardous  employment  of  the  seal 
fishery,  whose  long  absence  from  port,  more  than 
seven  months  beyond  the  anticipated  termination 
of  the  voyage,  was  a  frequent  topic  of  conversa- 
tion. During  the  continuance  of  the  catalepsy, 
the  mind  happened  to  revert  to  him ;  when  lo  ! 
she  saw  Captain  Swain  walking  the  deck  of  a 
low,  long  black  brig.*  She  was  completely 
overjoyed  at  the  sight,  for  she  seemed  to  be  by 
his  side,  and  in  an  extacy  of  surprise,  asked 
him  how  he  did  ?  This  sleep-talking  aroused 
Mr.  Fox  and  the  daughters,  one  of  whom  jocose- 

*  No  sensible  person  supposes  this  to  be  the  same  vessel 
seen  by  the  Philadelphia  pilots. 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  19 

]y  remarking  that  "mother  was  dreaming  audi- 
bly." Captain  Swain  had  on  shppers,  was 
smoking — and  foh'ovved  to  and  fro  by  a  shaggy 
dog,  adorned  with  a  brass  collar,  bearing  the 
engraved  letters,  R.  S.  She  saw  the  initials 
distinctly  ;  and  that  such  a  dog,  having  a  collar 
of  that  description  was  on  board  the  vesssel  in  a 
well-remembered  latitude  and  longitude,  has 
been  satisfactorily  proved  by  the  log-book. 
When  this  marvel  was  related,  the  identical 
brass  collar  was  brought  to  me  for  examination. 

Surely,  there  was  neither  deception  or  Cbilu- 
sion  in  the  matter.  It  was  distinct  vision,  re- 
quiring no  more  effort  than  any  individual  ordi- 
narily makes  in  contemplating  any  scene  within 
the  compass  of  ordinary  vision. 

Whilst  thus  apparently  following  her  brother 
in  his  movements  on  deck,  she  bethought  herself 
that  it  would  be  pleasant  to  take  a  peep  into  the 
cabin.  She  there  saw  a  young  negress,  perhaps 
fifteen  years  of  age,  mending  a  pea-jacket,  upon 
which  she  fastened  on  three  white  bone  buttons.* 

*  Nothing  gives  more  general  satisfaction  to  an  inquir- 
ing mind,  than    knowing  every  minute  circumstance. 

Mrs.  C is  a  model  in  that  respect,  vide  the   Oasis,  or 

Autobiography  of  eminent  Negroes.  The  Frugal  House- 
wife is  another  masterly  undertaking,  in  which  items  are 


20 


MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS. 


All  this  did  not  in  the  least  perturbate  Mrs. 
Fox,  for  it  seemed  to  her  that  she  was  verily 
present.  The  coat,  buttons  and  all,  are  now  in 
the  family  keeping.  On  the  day  and  hour  these 
discoveries  were  made,  the  vessel  was  rising  of 
one  thousand  miles  from  land. 

Contrary  to  my  first  intentions,  not  to  make 
frequent  digressions,  I  am  prompted  to  throw  in 
a  few  physiological  speculations,  for  such  they 
may  perhaps  be  considered,  though  I  cannot 
question  the  approach  of  a  day  when  these  para- 
doxical phenomena,  these  unaccountables  in  the 
labyrinth  of  philosophy,  will  all  be  explained 
upon  perfectly  lucid,  intelligible  principles.* 

swollen  into  astoundins:  factsln  domestic  economy.  This 
lady  was  the  discoverer  of  a  new  system  of  boarding-house 
tactics,  called  Staying  and  Starving. 

*  Speaking  of  digressions,  brings  to  recollection  the  re- 
cent colloquial  style  of  conversation  in  which  the  parties 
neither  look  each  other  in  the  face,  nor  oftener  than  is 
particularly  required  by  the  code  civil,  keep  to  the  subject 
of  conversation  more  than  seven  seconds.  Frequent  skips 
from  one  topic  to  another,  shows  a  general  acquaintance 
with  the  world.  Fine  specimens  of  conversation  are  com- 
mon in  the  New-Haven  oyster  cellars,  supposed  to  have 
been  introduced  there  by  under-graduates,  who  must  have 
acquired  the  elements  of  good  breeding  from  the  college 
faculty,  the  highest  tribunal  of  propriety  in  Connecticut. 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  21 

Finally,  one  of  the  daughters  intimated  that 
Iheir  mother  might  be  suffering  from  niglit-mare. 
Upon  this,  another  stepped  up  to  the  chair  and 
gently  began  to  pat  Mrs.  Fox  on  one  cheek. 
This  changed  the  order  of  her  sensations,  and 
she  at  once  awoke,  conscious  as  we  all  are  of  our 
relations  to  things  when  suddenly  roused  from  a 
Jethargic  sleep. 

As  soon  as  Mrs.  Fox  could,  she  related  the 
substance  of  the  foregoing  account,  averring 
that  it  was  not  a  dream,  but  a  reality  ;  but  this 
only  provoked  a  shout  of  merry  laughter,  par- 
ticularly when  Mr.  Fox,  after  his  dry  manner, 
said  it  was  a  cheap  mode  of  journeying.  In 
describing  the  thrilling  sensation  imparted  to  the 
entire  frame  by  the  cat's  tongue,  it  struck  the 
young  ladies  as  incredible,  and  byway  of  experi- 
ment, they  proposed  that  the  cat  should  exert  her 
magical  influences  again,  that  the  question  might 
be  settled,  whether  the  efforts  of  the  imagination 
or  feline  potency  had,  presto,  imparted  clair- 
voyancy  to  their  mother.  * 

*  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  Mrs.  Fox  had  been 
thrown  into  an  artificial  cataleptic  fit.  Catalepsy  is  a 
Latin  word,  derived  from  the  English  proper  name,  cat. 
Nothing  is  more  common  now-a-days  with  scholars  than 
to  Latinize  our  vernacular.  This  is  very  elegant,  and 
shows  well  for  our  literature  abroad. 
2» 


22      MISCELLANEOUS  DEVELOPMENTS. 

Well,  with  regard  to  the  digression,  it  is  fa- 
miliar to  anatomists,  that,  on  either  side  of  the 
larynx,  are  several  extremely  delicately-organized 
nerves,  having  their  origin  in  the  brain,  the  cen- 
tre of  the  nervous  system,  about  which  phrenolo- 
gists know  but  little,  though  pretending  to  much. 
These  thread-like  nerves  traverse  down  the 
neck  to  be  widely  distributed  over  the  thoracic 
and  abdominal  organs  ;  such  as  the  lungs,  heart, 
stomach,  liver,  spleen,  and  other  viscera  in  those 
vitalized  regions.  Of  these,  the  par  vagum  and 
sympathetic  are  quite  interesting  in  a  physio- 
logical view,  on  account  of  their  extensive  dis- 
tribution and  the  chain  of  sympathies  maintain- 
ed throughout  the  domain  of  the  body  by  their 
continually  subdividing  filaments. 

Nearly  opposite  the  vocal  box,  of  itself  a  splen- 
didly-constructed instrument,  independently  of 
its  peculiar  function  of  producing  sound,  there 
is  an  enlargement  of  the  sympatlietic  nerves  on 
the  two  sides ;  a  sort  of  bulging  into  a  fleshy 
kind  of  pad  ;  above  and  below,  the  main  shaft  of 
the  nerve  is  of  a  firm  texture  and  of  a  silvery 
whiteness.  These  enlargements  are  technically 
called  ganglia.  In  fact,  similar  increases  of  vol- 
ume in  the  smaller  order  of  nerves  are  discover- 
able in  the  chest,  in  the  lumbar  cavities,  the  ax- 


MISCELLANEOUS    DEVELOPMENTS.  23 

ilia,  &c.,  and  fulfil,  it  is  safely  conjectured,  the 
office  of  vital  centres.  In  the  worms,  there  are 
no  other  brains  than  these,  spread  along  the  line 
of  the  back,  showing  an  elementary  advance  to- 
wards the  perfect  brain  of  man.  At  the  several 
locations  of  these  ganglia  or  cerebral  centres,  we 
are  to  seek  for  certain  effects  on  the  body  and 
mind,  through  their  instrumentality,  as  external 
impressions  are  modified  by  their  agency  almost 
indefinitely,  when  a  person  has  been  subjected 
to  unusual  excitement. 

Over  the  cervical  ganglions,  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  tongue  of  the  cat  was  drawn,  the  effect 
being  like  other  tittilations,  to  produce  a  condi- 
tion of  the  nervous  fluid,  somwhat  inexplicable 
further,  than  the  production  of  certain  phenom- 
ena, imperfectly  analyzed.  An  exaltation  of  the 
nervous  tissues,*  to  their  highest  supportable 
bearing,  immediately  ensued. 

*  I  have  had  my  doubts  about  the  scientific  propriety  of 
this  word.  However,  there  are  hundreds  of  examples 
which  might  be  cited  by  our  best  writers,  showing  that 
the  more  obscure  they  are,  the  better  they  are  receiv- 
ed by  the  reader.  When  thai  soft  poet,  Park,  takes  a 
harlequin  leap  into  upper  air,  periodically,  nobody  but 
himself  knows  a  word  of  his  splendid  diction.  In  rh\-m- 
ing,  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  modern  Cologne  water  genius, 


CHAPTER  II. 


A   PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 

The  events  of  the  evening  led  to  a  learned 
discussion  upon  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Fox's  late 
singular  feelings.  On  the  following  morning, 
Dr.  B.  being  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chesnut 
street,  his  opinion  was  asked  of  the  producing 
cause  of  it.  He  is  too  wise  to  commit  himself, 
and  therefore  asked  permission  to  reflect  an  hour 
or  two.  In  the  mean  time  we  accidentally  met 
at  Ticknor's  bookstore,  where  crowds   of  idlers 

the  incomprehensibleness  of  the  man  is  charming  in  the 
poet.  Behold  the  second  killing  edition  of  the  song  of  the 
Gipsy ;  it  is  admirable  : — 

"Thy  slender  waist,  thy  tuneful  eye, 
Inflames,  consumes — my  amphr ototomy. ^^ 

Save  US,  ye  destinies,  from  an  avalanche  of  Greek 
Lexicons. 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT.  25 

are  permitted  to  lounge  over  the  rarest  produc- 
tions in  all  languages,  through  the  indomital)le 
good-nature  of  the  proprietor.  Calling  me  aside, 
in  that  non-committal  undertone  for  which  he  is 
distinguished,  he  gave  a  succinct  history  of  a 
rare  case  of  catalepsy,  scientifically  barricaded 
with  provisos,  that  if  it  would  be  gratifying  to 
me,  &c.,  although  it  was  not  customary  to  make 
exhibitions  of  his  patients,  at  three  in  the  after- 
noon, it  would  afford  him  much  pleasure  to  take 
me  to  the  residence  of  JNIr.  Fox. 

Punctually  at  the  hour,  we  met  in  Chesnut 
street.  The  affair  being  talked  over  and  over, 
Mrs.  Fox  seated  herself  as  before,  and  the  old  cat 
was  introduced  to  the  company  to  repeat  her 
former  operation.  Her  nose  was  repeatedly 
placed  in  contact  with  the  surface  which  was  at 
first  stimulated  ;  but  she  manifested  no  sort  of 
disposition  to  lick  the  ganglion.  This  ill  success 
called  into  action  the  inventive  faculty  of  Mr. 
Fox,  who  suggested  the  idea  of  basting  his  wife's 
neck  with  butter.  Nothing  could  have  been 
more  apropos  ;  puss  instinctively  availed  herself 
of  the  use  of  her  tongue  to  gather  up  the  sapid 
coating.  The  act  threw  Mrs.  Fox  immediately  in- 
to a  delirium  of  pleasure,  followed  by  a  cataleptic 


26  A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 

rigidity  of  the  muscles,  the  will  wholly  losing  its 
control  over  the  apparatus  of  voluntary  motion. 

Dr.  B.  declared  that  this  was  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  Animal  Magnetism,  because  she  did  not 
suffer:  her  countenance  was  expressive  of  per- 
fect delight.  Full  an  hour  elapsed  before  efforts 
were  made  to  awaken  her.  Various  schemes  were 
suggested  to  bring  her  to  herself  again,  but  se- 
rious apprehensions  then  began  to  take  the  place 
of  curiosity,  lest  a  genuine  lethargy  had  fastened 
itself  upon  the  obliging  lady.  Water  sprinkled 
over  the  face,  the  application  of  hartshorn,  rub- 
bing the  limbs  and  chafing  the  temples,  seemed 
to  avail  nothing,  so  profoundly  were  her  senses 
locked  up  by  Morpheus.  Nor  was  Mrs.  Fox 
at  all  moved  by  loud  and  repeated  calls,  close  to 
the  ear.  Never  had  the  family  felt  themselves 
more  sensibly  afflicted;  accusing  themselves  of 
influencing  their  mother  to  become  a  victim  of 
an  unwarrantable  experiment.  Both  myself  and 
Dr.  B.  exhausted  ourselves  in  the  exertions  made 
in  connexion  with  Mr.  Fox  and  his  daughters  to 
awaken  her.  Miss  Matilda  Fox,  in  the  midst  or 
this  dilemma,  happened  to  pass  one  hand  over 
her  mother's  face  in  the  act  of  untying  a  cap- 
ribbon,  when,  to  the  unspeakable  delight  and  re- 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 


27 


lief  too  of  us  all,  she  recovered  the  ability  to  move 
and  speak. 

Q,uestion  upon  question  was  eagerly  pressed, 
each  one  being  anxious  to  know  how  she  felt, 
what  her  dreams  had  been,  whether  she  had 
been  exercised  by  pain  ;  and  lastly,  had  she  been 
conscious  of  what  had  been  passing,  &lc.,  infinite- 
ly faster  than  they  could  be  conveniently  answer- 
ed. When  their  anxieties  were  quieted,  they 
were  assured  that  the  state  that  she  had  been 
thrown  into  by  the  cat-necromancer,  was  per- 
fect enjoyment;  it  was  indescribably  pleasur- 
able,* nor  could  she  very  well  resist  the  dis- 
position to  tell  what  she  had  seen  in  her  visions, 
if  supernatural  they  were. 

To  know  all,  with  scarcely  patience  to  wait 
till  her  thoughts  were  sufficiently  collected,  Mrs. 
Fox  related  what,  before  we  fathomed  the  phe- 
nomena, almost  seemed  the  visitations  of  a  dis- 
tempered brain. 

In  the  first  instance,  as  in  subsequent  experi- 

*  All  those  ladies  who  are  susceptible  of  the  magnetic 
touch  refer  to  the  same  exquisite  train  of  sensations.  Miss 
Gleason,  whose  ardor  and  philanthropy  induced  her  to 
leave  a  Fall  River  factory  to  be  illustrated  upon  by  the 
s^reat  Dr.  Poyen,  uniformly  melts  before  that  gentleman's 
manipulations,  like  an  iceberg  in  a  tropical  sun. 


28  A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 

ments,  the  sensation  of  physical  pleasure  radiated 
instantaneously  from  the  throat ;  and  the  next 
feeling  was  this,  viz. — that  she  was  rapidly, 
though  gently,  conveyed  through  the  air  ;  the  im- 
pelling force  never  ceased  acting,  till  the  mind 
became  fixed  on  some  one  object,  as  a  tree,  a 
house,  or  even  a  territory,  when  she  instantly 
felt  herself  at  rest.* 

An  inquiry  was  now  fairly  instituted,  and  al- 
though it  was  unconnected  with  a  systematic 
plan  of  investigation,  enough  had  been  devel- 
oped to  show  that  the  vast  domain  of  nature 
might  be  inspected  through  the  instrumentality 
of  Mrs.  Fox's  peculiar  organization,  provided 
that  a  mode  of  manacrincr  it  could  be  ascertained. 
By  this  declaration  the  reader  will  perceive  that 

*  Miss  Brackett,  the  Providence  somnambulist,  gives  a 
similar  account  of  her  aerial  perigrinations.  For  a  young 
beginner,  her  explorations  are  calculated  to  produce  a 
striking  revolution  in  astronomical  science,  by  putting  to 
rest  that  mooted  point  about  the  globular  figure  of  the 
earth,  which  is  glory  enough  for  a  female.  She  has  over 
and  again  convinced  the  President  and  professors  of  the 
University,  that  Venus  is  a  parallelopiped,  which  the 
freshmen  are  obliged  to  swear  to,  as  an  article  of  faith  on 
entering  college.  Sophomores,  by  a  late  ordinance,  are  at 
liberty  to  call  on  the  lady  twice  a  month,  for  further  in- 
formation. 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT.  29 

I  now  began  to  believe  in  Animal  Magnetism, 
and  yet  I  hardly  know  why. 

On  after  reflection,  we  were  surprised  at  the 
manner  in  wliicii  Mrs.  Fox  had  been  roused  from 
the  paroxysms  ;  for  it  was  recollected  that  a  trans- 
verse motion  of  Miss  Matilda's  hand  over  her 
mother's  face  had  twice  broken  the  spell.  Two 
facts,  at  all  events,  were  thus  established,  viz. 
that  Mrs.  Fox  could  be  made  to  slumber,  even 
without  her  free  concurrence  ;  and,  secondly, 
that  she  could  be  awakened  from  that  artificial 
sleep  by  gently  carrying  the  fingers  across  her 
face,  on  the  plane  of  the  orbits.* 

Such  is  the  nature  of  man,  in  stumbling  upon 
a  discovery  like  this,  involving  something  of  the 

*  Every  writer  on  the  science  of  Animal  Magnetism, 
gives  precise  rules  for  making  the  transverse  passes.  Op- 
erators all  over  the  country  are  familiar  with  the  mode  of 
drawing  out  the  magnetic  fluid  by  transverse  sweeps  of  the 
hands  across  the  face.  I  recommend  to  new  beginners  to 
shake  the  fingers  smartly,  as  ihey  would  to  throw  water- 
drops  from  the  hand,  by  a  sudden  jerk,  as  they  leave  the  face. 
Something  of  this  sort  is  obviously  necessary,  otherwise 
the  nervous  fluid  is  but  partially  extracted,  which  leaves 
the  individual,  if  young,  in  a  queer  state  of  moral  feeling, 
not  precisely  expressed  in  the  books,  rather  dangerous  to 
those  of  a  lymphatic  temperament.  Dr.  Bobbins  of  Ux- 
bridge,  will  throw  a  blaze  of  hght  on  this  subject,  directly. 
3 


30 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 


mysterious,  that  he  is  stimulated  to  continual 
exertions,  being  unwilling  to  relinquish  a  re- 
search while  the  promise  of  surmounting  diffi- 
culties offers  the  most  triflins:  encourasfement. 
We  love  to  know  the  minutia3  in  this  country; 
nor  is  this  all :  the  why,  and  the  wherefore,  are 
problems  a  New-Englander  is  unwilling  to  aban- 
don till  he  knows  all  that  is  to  be  known  of  any- 
thing which  interests  him. 

On  looking  up  to  the  clock,  we  were  warned 
of  the  lateness  of  the  hour — midnight  had  crept 
on  before  it  was  suspected.  All  further  research, 
therefore,  was  necessarily  postponed  to  another 
day.  1  called  the  next  morning  on  Mrs.  Fox, 
who  was  in  excellent  spirits.  Instead  of  exhibit- 
ing a  feverish  lassitude,  vital  depression  or  fa- 
tigue, the  last  night's  labors  were  reverted  to 
with  unfeigned  satisfaction.  After  my  arrival, 
the  young  ladies  were  importunate  to  know  yvhat 
their  mother  saw  the  last  evening,  and  besought 
me  to  join  forces  with  them  in  persuading  her  to 
tell  us  all  about  it.  She  was  kind  enough  to 
comply,  but  it  cannot  be  expected  that  1  shall 
detail  the  particulars  of  these  imperfect  or  rath- 
er incipient  marches  of  the  senses  beyond  those 
limits  impressed  upon  them  by  the  operation  of 
the  common  laws  of  nature. 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT.  31 

A  proposition  was  made  to  have  anotlier  trial, 
to  whicii  Mrs.  Fox  assented,  but  the  cat  could 
no  where  be  found.  This  was  indeed  a  disap- 
pointment, and  for  which  none  of  us  were  pre- 
pared. Knowing  that  the  cross  passes  of  Miss 
Matilda  had  positively  opened  her  eyes,  I  assured 
her  that  it  u'ould  lay  me  under  infinite  obliga- 
tions in  being  ])ermitled  to  manipulate  her  after 
the  manner  laid  down  in  M.  Deleuze.*  No  ob- 
jections being  made,  I  commenced  drawing  my 
fingers  from  above  downward,  in  the  direction  of 
the  nerves  and  blood-vessels  of  the  neck,  quite 
below  the  solar  plexas,  and  finally  down  to  the 
knees.    Sleep  almost  immediately  was  produced. 

*  Mr.  Plartshorn,  of  Providence,  to  whom  the  whole 
world  is  indebted  for  a  translation  of  the  best  Manual  on 
Animal  Magnetism  extant,  enriched  by  copious  notes  of 
his  own,  together  with  letters  in  the  appendix  from  meri- 
torious ph)"sicians  of  that  city,  has  shown  what  true  cour- 
age consists  of.  Nothing  has  been  admitted  into  that  stu- 
pendous work  unsuitable  to  be  studied  in  the  Mosque  of 
Omar.  To  discriminate  truth  from  fiction,  and  so  poise 
the  imaginings  of  ardent  anthropologists  so  as  not  to  have 
the  beam  preponderate  the  wrong  way,  calls  forth  the 
highest  grade  of  talents.  Dr.  Capron's  contributions  to 
Mr.  Hartshorn  must  not  be  too  lightly  estimated.  He  is 
a  host  in  his  own  person,  a  kind  of  Megalonyx, — 

*'  For  farces  and  physic,  liis  crjual  there  scarce  is — 
His  farces  are  physic,  his  physic  a  farce  is." 


32  A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 

Subsequent  experiments  convinced  me  that  the 
old  preparatory  process  of  holding  the  thumbs 
a  while  before  the  regular  passes  are  made,  is  an 
useless  expenditure  of  time.  In  an  aged  person 
perhaps  it  might  facilitate  the  magnetic  state, 
but  under  ordinary  circumstances  I  consider  it 
quite  as  well  to  trust  to  the  amount  of  fluid  which 
a  bold  magnetizer  can  impart  from  himself,  by 
regularly  directing  the  nervous  energy  a  consid- 
erable time  in  one  unbroken  chain.  Certainly 
this  course  in  my  particular  practice  has  always 
been  decidedly  efficacious. 

Some  individuals  are  much  more  susceptible 
than  others.  Those  having  a  pale  skin,  slender 
figure,  blue  eyes,  and  a  quick,  vigorous  intellect, 
should  be  preferred  to  those  of  a  heavy  mould. 
Black  eyes,  black  hair,  with  plump  figures,  are 
not  easily  magnetized.*  A  head  of  red  hair  in- 
dicates an  excellent  organization  for  the  free 
display  of  magnetic  phenomena. 

What  I  have  ventured  to  call  susceptibility,  is 
simply  a  condition  to  be  acted  upon  by  stimuli, 

*  The  power  of  concentrating  the  nervous  fluid  is  begin- 
ning to  be  a  rare  qualification  M.  Poyen  now  confines 
himself  altogether  to  red-haired  ladies.  The  only  reason 
of  his  failure  before  the  Municipal  authorities  of  Salem, 
was  owing  to  the  undetected  existence  of  a  few  solitary 
hairs  of  another  color  in  the  left  eyebrow. 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 


33 


which  perhaps  might  be  objected  toby  those  less 
devoted  to  logical  deductions  than  myself.  Stim- 
uli, of  whatever  kind  or  quality,  either  imbibed 
by  cutaneous  absorption  or  received  into  the 
stomach,  or  infused  through  the  extreme  termi- 
nations of  the  dermoid  nerves,  have  the  same 
specific  effect  on  the  individual  so  receiving 
them.  The  pulse  are  accelerated,  a  rapid  se- 
cretion of  the  fluids  follows,  and  a  sensitiveness 
not  unlike  a  mild  exhileration  is  soon  observa- 
ble. 

IMrs.Fox,  as  I  have  just  related,  by  my  agency, 
again  went  to  sleep.  Never  in  the  whole  course 
of  my  professional  life  have  I  felt  that  a  greater 
triumph  had  been  gained.  Beyond  dispute  I 
thus  made  the  important  discovery,  that  in  my 
own  individual  person  I  carried  an  invisible 
something  which  would  prostrate  the  machinery 
of  the  human  frame,  and  set  free  the  conscious 
spirit,  that  would  either  go  or  come  at  my  bid- 
ding. Mental  indications,  or  the  willing  to  com- 
pel another  to  do  that  which  otherwise  could  or 
would  not  have  been  executed,  has  not  been  suc- 
cessfully managed  in  my  hands. 

At  length  we  commenced  asking  her  ques- 
tions, to  which  she  gave  speedy  and  appropriate 
answers.  1  said  to  her,  Madam,  do  you  perceive 
3* 


34  A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT. 

any  object  1  "  Yes,"  said  she, — "I  see  a  gold 
breast-pin  lying  under  the  left  hand  gate-post, 
entering  from  the  street."  **  A  gold  pin,  a  gold 
pin,"  repeated  the  young  ladies,  one  to  the  oth- 
er. It  came  to  mind  that  six  years  ago,  an  arti- 
cle of  that  kind  had  been  lost,  and  that  several 
domestics  had  been  suspected  of  purloining  it. 
There  being  no  species  of  proof  against  their 
assertions  of  honesty,  the  loss  was  quite  for- 
gotten. With  the  serving-man  of  the  house,  by 
permission  of  Mrs.  Fox,  we  forthwith  raised  the 
post ;  and  lo  !  there  lay  the  trinket,  uninjured 
by  its  long  imprisonment.  The  young  ladies 
now  recalled  the  circumstance  from  olden  lime, 
and  it  was  remembered  by  them  that  the  gate 
posts  were  set  on  the  same  day  the  pin  disap- 
peared. When  the  workmen  had  dug  the  holes, 
they  were  called  off  to  dinner.  It  was  during 
their  absence  that  one  of  the  three,  who  were 
then  children,  playing  about  the  spot,  dropped 
the  jewel  in.  On  their  return  in  the  afternoon, 
the  post  was  fixed  in  its  destined  position.  If 
any  one  questions  this  simple,  yet  truly  extraor- 
dinary prevision,  in  passing  by  Mr.  Fox's  house, 
Chesnut  street,  the  identical  post  upon  which  the 
gate  swings,  may  be  inspected  at  leisure. 

As  the  high  price  of  fuel  in  Boston  had  been  an 


A    PHILOSOPHICAL    EXPERIMENT.  35 

occasional  topic  of  conversation,  the  quantity 
in  market' being  considered  criminally  small,  I 
asked  Mrs.  Fox  whether  she  discovered  any  coal 
beds  near  by  1  After  looking  as  it  were  atten- 
tively a  moment  or  so,  both  eyes  being  perfectly 
closed,  "Yes,"  she  spiritedly  answered.  "I 
discover  a  prodigious  quantity  of  coal,  spread 
out  like  a  long  black  ribbon,  about  four  yards 
below  the  surface,  inclining  deeper  and  deeper 
in  a  southeasterly  direction  from  the  apparent 
place  occupied  by  myself"  What  a  shame, 
nay,  how  wicked  it  is  in  the  coal-dealers  to 
charge  the  poor  such  exorbitant  prices,  when 
such  an  inexhaustible  mine  is  close  at  hand  !  Ev- 
ery object  being  perfectly  strange  to  her,  she  could 
not  determine  where  or  in  what  town  this  splen- 
did locality  was  situated,  because  no  objects 
were  familiar  to  her  recollection,  if  they  had  ev- 
er before  been  seen. by  her. 


CHAPTER  III. 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES. 

Another  sitting  gave  me  further  opportuni- 
ty for  pushing  my  inquiries  into  those  dark  re- 
gions of  terra  firma,  where  no  human  eye,  save 
those  of  this  gifted  lady,  has  been  permitted  to 
survey  the  wonders  concealed  in  the  earth  be- 
neath our  feet. 

Her  attention  having  been  directed  to  a  casual 
examination  of  the  interior  of  the  globe,  she  start- 
ed from  the  chair  with  expressions  of  perfect 
horror  ; — for,  not  more  than  seven  miles  from 
the  surface,  there  is  one  vast  furnace,  where  a 
fire,  millions  of  times  hotter  than  it  is  possible  to 
conceive  of,  is  roaring  like  legions  of  wild 
beasts,  and  the  molten  billows  surge  over  the 
mighty  sea  of  lurid  fire  in  awful  sublimity. 
The  sight  was  too  painful.  Pray,  said  I,  keep 
nearer  the  top  of  the  ground,  and,  if  you  can, 
inform  me  how  it  looks  under  the  city  of  Boston. 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES. 


37 


Perhaps  ten  minutes  were  required  for  con- 
templating objects,  before  any  facts  were  reveal- 
ed. I  urged  lier  to  start  from  some  familiar 
point,  and  pursue  the  track  of  the  streets,  thus 
maintaining  her  relationship  to  well-known  edi- 
fices, and  at  the  same  time  enabling  me  to  desig- 
nate places  which  it  might  be  desirable  to  re- 
member. Accordingly,  the  starting-])lace  was 
in  Washington  Street,  opposite  the  green  stores, 
a  revolutionary  monument.  "  Here,"  said  INIrs. 
Fox,  "  I  will  enter."  Well,  directly  she  an- 
nounced a  depth  of  about  one  hundred  and  lliirty 
feet; — *'  Certainly  I  am  full  thirty  feet  further 
in  the  ground  than  could  be  reached  with  the 
fireman's  liberty-pole,  planted  by  the  side  of  the 
big  elm  —  and  here  is  the  edge  of  a  great  clay- 
basin,  bearing  some  fanciful  resemblance  to  an 
artificial  reservoir." 

I  noted  every  word  on  the  spot,  so  that  my  ac- 
count may  be  relied  upon.  By  following  the 
basin  some  considerable  distance,  she  found  that 
the  part  on  which  she  apparently  stood,  was  the 
segment  of  a  great  circle.  It  was  filled  with  a 
turbid,  milky-colored  water,  but  whether  fresli  or 
salt,  could  not  be  determined.  The  earth  above 
dipped  down,  at  irregular  distances,  like  rude 
columns,  restinor  on  the  bottom  of  this  subterra- 


3S  INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES. 

nean  lake.  Between  these  props,  of  unequal 
lengths,  breadth  and  figure,  the  water  flows 
freely  at  all  points  of  the  compass. 

Pursuing  a  northerly  direction,  the  basin  evi- 
dently deepened,  and  a  sort  of  boiling  motion 
was  perceptible,  as  though  the  water  was  agita- 
ted by  some  central  force.  In  a  word,  the  an- 
cient city  of  Boston  stands  on  the  top  of  an  infin- 
itude of  clay  pillars,  the  water  playing  between 
them  as  it  does  between  the  piers  of  a  bridge. 

On  inquiry,  I  am  informed,  by  gentlemen  of 
respectabilty,  particularly  the  water-drinkers,* 
that  the  project  of  supplying  the  metropolis  of 
the  North  with  fresh  water  from  the  country, 
has  not   met  with  such  hearty   encouragement 

*  Water-commissioners  are  appointed,  by  an  express 
provision  of  the  United  States,  once  in  fifty  years,  at  an 
annual  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars  each,  including 
hack-hire,  tolls  and  provender  whenever  they  go  to  Stone- 
ham.  Their  principal  duty  is  to  inspect  the  frog  ponds, 
and  keep  them  clear  from  vermin.  Last  season  they 
caught  lots  of  tadpoles ;  a  service  that  was  promptly 
acknowledged  by  the  Texian  government.  A  daily 
record  is  kept  at  the  water  office,  open  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  strangers.  The  clerks  are  fine  fellows,  never 
being  from  business  more  than  two  weeks  at  once.  No 
documents  are  hailed  with  such  demonstrations  of  pleas- 
ure as  estimates  of  the  cost  of  introducing  fresh  water  into 
cities. 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES.  39 

from  the  citizens  as  it  otherwise  would,  were  it 
not  susceptible  of  demonstration  that  artesean 
wells  would  be  adequate  to  any  demands  made 
upon  them.  Wherever  an  auger  has  been  thrust 
to  the  depth  of  one,  or  perhaps,  at  farthest,  two 
hundred  feet,  by  individual  enterprise,  the  water 
has  rushed  to  the  surface  with  surprising  force. 
A  well,  near  the  rope-walks,  sunk  by  Captain 
Lewis,  another  in  Fayette  Street,  the  labor  of 
Mr.  Marsh,  and  another  at  Alger's  foundry, 
South  Boston,  must  convince  any  person,  open 
to  conviction,  that  there  is  a  never-failing  foun- 
tain in  the  earth  below.  Wherever  tlie  boring 
has  been  tried  north  and  northeast  of  the  market, 
the  di[)  of  the  superincumbent  earth  requires  the 
instrument  to  be  sunk  considerably  deeper  than 
at  the  southern  sections  of  the  city. 

Though  exceedingly  unwilling,  by  importuni- 
ty, Mrs.  Fox  was  induced  to  look  minutely  into 
the  boundaries  of  this  basin,  being  then,  as  I  am 
at  the  instant  of  recording  these  facts,  satisfied 
that  the  public  have  a  right  to  profit  by  this  dis- 
covery. 

East  Boston,  the  oN'avy  Yard  at  Charlestown, 
the  depot  of  the  Lowell  Rail-roa5,  the  whole  of 
West  Boston,  Charles  River,  round  to  the  west- 
ern   avenue,    are   embraced   with    the    natural 


40 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES. 


boundaries  of  the  basin.  The  deepest  place  is 
nearly  under  the  Oriental  Bank,  at  the  corner 
of  Slate  Street  and  Merchants'  Row.  Mrs.  Fox 
suspects  that  the  milky  color  was  owing  (o  a 
solution  of  clay,  the  forest  of  supporters  being 
continually  washed  by  the  circulating  water. 
Those  abortive  attempts  to  obtain  it  by  borin<.> 
in  several  vvards,  were  owing  to  the  misfortune 
of  striking  the  auger  into  one  of  the  gigantic  pii- 
lars  instead  of  penetrating  the  interstice  between 
two  of  them.  This  is  a  difficulty  always  to  be 
apprehended  ;  and  yet,  with  our  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  geology,  there  is  no  mode  of  certainly- 
avoiding  the  difficulty. 

According  to  her  notions  of  labor-saving,  Mrs. 
Fox  considers  the  most  favorable  ground  in  the 
whole  city  for  sinking  an  artesean  well,  on  ac- 
count of  the  prodigious  width  of  the  inter-col- 
umner  spaces,  to  be  in  Chauncy  place,  at  its  in- 
tersection with  Summer  Street.  That  this  is  a 
hollow  place  is  very  certain.* 

*  Mr.  T being  aware  of  ihe  cavernous  character 

of  Chauncy  Place,  limited  the  school  to  a  definite  number 
of  boys,  years  ago,  fearmg  to  exceed  it,  lest  any  accumu- 
lation of  ponderoj^ity  should  sink  the  whole  establishment. 
Owing  to  a  similar  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  proprietors 
of  the  church  near  by,  marriage  publishments  are  read  on 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES.  41 

At  the  western  extremity  of  Louisburg  square, 
partly  under  the  street,  Mrs.  Fox  discovered  a 
brick  vault  of  sufficient  capacity  to  take  in  a 
common-sized  hogshead.  Within  this  concealed 
enclosure,  are  seven  earthen  pots,  covered  over 
at  the  top  with  sheet  lead  ;  interspersed  among 
them,  are  some  dozens  of  bottles,  the  hilt  of  a 
sword  in  the  north  corner,  and  the  decayed 
frame-work  of  a  trunk.  She  could  not  deter- 
mine the  contents  of  the  stone  vessels.  She  con 
jectured,  however,  that  they  were  originally  filled 
with  pickles.  A  similar  underground  structure 
was  found,  in  18*26,  in  Chamber  street,  at  a  depth 
of  more  than  thirty  feet  below  the  natural  level 
of  the  land.  Thousands  of  people  thronged  the 
neighborhood  to  take  a  peep  at  it,  while  excava- 
tions were  making  for  a  block  of  buildings,  to 
face  on  Leverett  street.  Although  currently  re- 
ported to  contain  nothing  but  a  few  slaughter- 
house bones,  it  was  generally  believed  that  valu- 
able property  had  been  taken  out  before  publici- 
ty was  given  to  the  fact  that  a  strong  specimen 
of  masonry  had  been  found  at  that  section  of  the 
town. 

Thursdays,  and  never  on  the  Sabbath.  Crowded  assem- 
blies in  Chauucey  Place  might  be  attended  with  danger- 
ous coniequences. 

4 


42  INTERESTING   DISCOVERIES. 

I  besouorht  her  to  look  further,  not  doubting 
that  in  a  city  of  tlie  inagniliide  of  Boston,  dis- 
tinguislied  for  its  wealth,  that  much  treasure  of 
one  kind  and  another,  in  the  revolution,  lost  by 
accident  and  design,  was  concealed  on  the  old 
estates. 

Not  far  from  eleven  feet  deep,  just  under  the 
west  corner  of  the  Stone  Chapel,  Mrs.  Fox  saw  a 
singular  collection  of  coins,  the  remains  of  an 
under  jaw,  and,  in  contact  with  both,  a  tin  canis- 
ter of  buttons.*  Twelve  feet  from  those  articles, 
exactly  in  a  line  with  the  southern  face,  is  a 
skeleton  in  a  sitting  position,  having  a  copper 
hooj)  encircling  the  skull,  one  inch  and  a  quar- 
ter in  width.  On  both  arms,  above  tiie  elbows, 
are  two  green  rings.  At  the  feet  is  the  head  of 
a  deer,  with  prodigiously  wide  branching  ant- 
lers. My  curiosity  has  been  so  excited  by  this 
declaration,  that  an  early  application  is  premedi- 
tated to  the  proper  authorities,  for  permission  to 
make  an  opening  under  that  ancient  edifice. 

*  Probably  the  reminiscences  of  a  tailor.  Mr.  Milton 
having  dealt  largely  in  copper  advertisements  imitating 
cents,  in  his  last  will  and  testament,  it  is  hoped,  will  direct 
that  all  the  shop  coinage  on  hand  at  the  final  consumma- 
tion of  business  at  FaneuilHall,  shall  be  disposed  of  in  the 
same  manner. 


INTERESTING    DISCOVERIES.  43 

In  North  Square,  several  strange  specimens 
of  mechanical  skill,  the  use  or  cle.'<ign  of  which 
could  not  be  devised,  are  buried  at  irregular 
depths.  When  the  foundation  of  the  mariner's 
church  was  laid,  had  the  ditrgers  dipped  two 
feet  further,  singular  reliquiae  of  savage  life  would 
have  been  brought  to  light. 

Anxious  for  her  penetrating  eye  to  search  the 
town  generally,  perhaps  at  this  sitting,  the  ob- 
servations were  made  too  much  at  random  :  my 
excuse  is,  that  it  was  a  part  of  my  design  to  first 
reconnoitre  the  town,  and  at  a  leisure  day  take 
the  streets  by  ward?.  The  first  developments, 
therefore,  only,  are  here  noted.. 

On  the  sides  of  Fox  Hill,  the  site  of  a  fort  in 
ruins,  west  of  Crescent  Pond,  hundreds  of  per- 
plexing sights  were  presented,  averaging  three 
and  a  half  feet  deep.  More  than  seventy  skele- 
tons of  infants,  secured  in  coffee-pots,  cigar 
boxes,  oil  jars,  wine  measures,  &lc.  are  concealed 
there.  Among  this  mournful  collection  of  dry 
bones,  Mrs.  Fox  recognized  two  beautiful  work- 
baskets,  both  containing  horrible  mementos  of 
crime.  On  the  marshy  extremity  of  the  Com- 
mon, she  had  a  distinct  view  of  a  human  skele- 
ton which  had  an  iron  spike  driven  in  atone  ear. 
She  was  greatly  shocked  at  the  sight,  and  begged 


44  INTERESTING  DISCOVERIES. 

that  I  would  not  urge  her  to  remain  in  that 
dreadful  golgotha.  My  sympathies  were  power- 
fully in  harmony  with  her  own,  and  I  very  wil- 
lingly proposed  another  district.  Since  then, 
no  walk  over  that  part  of  the  Common  has  been 
pleasant ;  even  a  distant  sight  of  Fox  Hill  recalls 
painful  emotions.  On  Fort  Hill,  not  a  single 
object  worth  speaking  of  could  be  found.  At 
two  places  in  Milk  Street,  about  eighty  old 
French  crowns  lie  scattered  over  a  space  of  some 
three  square  feet.  Between  the  Old  South  and 
— — ,  spoons,  three  silver  tankards,  &c.,  a  cop- 
per tea-kettle  full  of  small  change,  like  contribu- 
tion money,  are  snugly  hidden  under  a  fragment 
of  a  grave-stone.  The  latter  is  presumed  to 
have  been  taken  from  the  Granary  Yard,  the 
lower  half  standing  there  having  a  fracture  to 
correspond  with  the  secreted  portion.  All  these 
things  are  conjectured  to  have  been  deposited 
when  the  British  troops  held  possession  of  the 
town,  by  some  one  who  no  doubt  intended  to 
take  them  up  when  property  would  be  secured 
by  law  to  the  rightful  owner. 

Nine  feet  from  the  Old  South  side  walk,  con- 
siderably deep,  lies  another  grave-stone,  bearing, 
on  its  front,  the  sculptured  face  of  a  cherub, with 
a  pair  of  wings  resembling  hand-bellows,  grow- 


INTERESTING  DISCOVERIES.  4o 

in<T  out  an  inch  behind  the  ears.  W.  J.  in  plain 
chiselling-,  are  cut  on  the  opposite  or  back  side. 
I  shall  rejoice  to  hear  the  pew  holders  consent 
to  have  an  exploration  about  their  premises. 

Close  by  the  Doubt  estate,  North  End,  bor- 
dering upon  Tileston  Street,  lies  something  worth 
possessing.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  con- 
tents of  a  well,  hard  by  Copp's  Hill  ;  but  I  for- 
bear to  indicate  definitely  on  account  of  the  dep- 
redations that  would  infallibly  be  made  by  un- 
principled adventurers.  But  of  all  spots  sur- 
veyed by  Mrs.  Fox,  the  inner  harbor  is  incal- 
culably the  richest,  surpassing  the  creations  of 
fancy  in  many  respects.  Opposite  the  wharves, 
on  the  hither  side  of  the  channel,  nothing  but 
bits  of  rope,  fragments  of  iron  hoops,  or  the  occa- 
sional fluke  of  a  rusty  anchor  came  to  view. 
On  the  flats,  however,  quite  a  diff'erent  scene 
presented.  Anchors  of  all  patterns  and  sizes, 
iron  keels,  parts  of  chain-cables,  copper  bolts, 
rings,  tackles,  gunsof  all  sorts,  with  and  without 
stocks,  fishing  tackle  ;  thousands  of  lead  weights 
tied  with  short  pieces  of  codline;  bottles,  watch- 
es, seals  and  chains,  finger-rings,  spy-glasses, 
drinking  vessels,  knives,  buttons,  spoons,  besides 
innumerable  articles  not  now  recollected,  have 
been  strewn  over  some  forty  acres  with  a  profuse 
4* 


46  INTERESTING  DISCOVERIES. 

hand.  These,  in  fact,  are  the  gatherings  of  two 
hundred  years,  mostly  by  accident.  West  of 
Bird  Island,  Mrs.  Fox  saw  three  human  skele- 
tons, loaded  with  a  number  of  fifty-sixes,  fastened 
on  by  wire.  Surely,  this  is  an  indication  of  some 
foul  deed.  She  often  assured  me  that  only  a 
stone's  throw  from  the  wharves,  taking  a  circuit 
of  the  town,  the  waves  roll  over  the  disappearing 
osseous  remains  of  many  loved  ones,  whose  dis- 
appearance was  never  satisfactorily  explained. 
Other  bones,  of  horses,  dogs,  cats,  and  coins  of 
various  denominations,  wedged  in  the  mud,  and 
still  working  towards  the  clay  bottom,  beneath 
the  vegetable  accumulations  and  filth,  seemingly 
might  be  recovered  by  the  simplest  mechanical 
contrivances  imaginable. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


SOMETHIxVG    SURPRISING. 


Perhaps  I  am  becoming  tedious  :  surely  it  is 
not  my  wish  to  offend  against  good  manners, 
and  yet  1  feel  that  the  public  has  a  direct  claim 
upon  me  to  tell  all  I  know  in  the  department  of 
knowledge  to  which  of  late  I  have  been  passion- 
ately devoted.  As  my  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Fox  soon  ripened  into  a  friendship,  which  I  trust 
is  mutually  acknowledged  by  the  family — cer- 
tainly so  on  my  part,  confidence  became  strength- 
ened, and  she  exerted  herself  to  gratify  my  un- 
conquerable love  of  discovery  to  the  extent  of 
her  clairvoyant  faculty.  To  Mrs.  Fox,  I  here 
make  an  unqualified  declaration,  am  I  indebted 
for  all  the  advances  I  have  made  from  the  limit- 
ed knowledge  of  the  schools,  in  those  sublime 
contemplations  of  the  grandeur  and  extent  of 
that  ceaseless  Power  which  operates  through  all 


48  SOMETHING    SURPRISING. 

space,  controlling  the  minutest  portion  of  organ- 
ized matter,  as  it  does  the  countless  stars  in  the 
firmament,  in  beauty  and  order.  Had  it  not 
have  been  for  the  untiring  condescension  of  Mrs. 
Fox,  the  learned  would  still  have  been  enveloped 
in  darkness  oa  thousands  of  questions,  now  made 
clear  and  comprehensible. 

At  too  great  a  depth  to  warrant  mining  opera- 
tions, unfortunately,  under  the  town  of  Spring- 
field, Vt.  is  a  monstrous  deposit  of  copper  ore. 
Also  at  Bellows'  Falls  and  at  Brattleborough, 
copper  of  pretty  good  quality  may  be  considered 
plenty.  Nothing  worth  describing  could  be  de- 
tected in  the  substrata  of  Windsor  or  Hartland, 
taking  the  course  of  the  river.  A  beautiful  in- 
terval bottom  on  the  Connecticut,  called  Weth- 
ersfield  Bow,  is  quite  rich  in  mineral  deposits. 
There  will  always  be  difficulty  to  contend  with 
in  subterranean  explorations  at  the  Bow,  on  ac- 
count of  the  perpendicular  depth  of  the  miner- 
als, below  the  bottom  of  the  river.  A  good  deal 
of  copperas  might  be  advantageously  manufac- 
tured at  Cornish,  N.  H.  Hanover  is  perfectly 
sterile,  with  the  exception  of  garnets.  Mrs.  Fox 
saw  splendid  specimens  ;  some  larger  than  ounce 
bullets.  She  says  it  would  well  pay  the  way  for 
Boston  jewellers  to  be  at  considerable  expense 


SOMETHING    SURPRISING.  49 

to  procure  them.  Generally,  they  are  imbedded 
in  a  grayish  kind  of  rock.  Of  all  the  towns  in 
New-Hampshire,  Hopkinton,  Goffstown,  Con- 
way and  Centre-Harbor,  have  bv.en  the  decided 
favorites  of  nature.  Accident  will  at  some  future 
day  show  the  people  there  what  there  is  under- 
neath their  green  fields.  Specks  of  gold  were 
repeatedly  noticed,  even  above  ground,  at  the 
base  of  the  White  Mountains.  Blastings  on  the 
south  border  would  astonish  a  professed  geolo- 
gist. An  abundance  of  lead  might  be  thrown 
up  in  a  hundred  places. 

Vermont  abounds  with  lead,  iron,  copper  and 
rich  marble.  Rutland,  Vergennes,  Woodstock, 
and  Manchester,  are  amply  provided  for,  even 
for  centuries,  in  many  respects.  Another  gen- 
eration will  look  into  matters. 

Mrs.  Fox,  after  repeated  trials,  declared  that 
there  were  no  minerals  in  Rhode  Island.  In 
this  sweeping  assertion,  however,  she  made  no 
reference  to  coal ;  the  real  and  only  bank  to  be 
depended  upon  in  the  State.  The  little  State  has 
scarcely  anything  else  but  coal ;  the  whole  east 
side  of  Providence  river  is  one  solid  bed  of  slaty 
bituminous  coal,  quite  down  to  Newport.  A 
shaft  of  two  hundred  feet  would  show  a  quality 
that  would  vie  with  the  best  Liverpool.     "  How 


50  SOMETHING   SURPRISING. 

black  it  is,"  she  often  repeated,  in  tracing  the 
veins.  Warren,  is  altogether  superior  to  Bris- 
tol for  coaling.  Two  miles  or  so  above  Provi- 
dence, and  even  at  Pawtucket,  the  coal  lies  deep, 
but  there  is  an  immensity  of  it.  Mrs.  Fox  once 
said  to  me  that  it  was  very  strange  some  one  had 
not  detected  coal  at  Pawtucket  in  sinking  two 
wells,  the  lowest  in  the  town,  as  they  actually 
struck  a  vein.  Smithfield  has  coal  too,  but  it  is 
considerably  intermixed  with  pebbles  in  an  un- 
usual manner,  giving  it  something  of  the  appear- 
ance of  Roxbury  conglomerate  or  pudding-stone. 
By  my  express  desire,  a  bed  of  coal  was  fol- 
lowed from  the  town  of  Warren,  R,  I.  north  and 
northeasterly,  with  a  hope  that  some  point  would 
be  found  where  it  cropped  out  of  the  ground. 
I  was  encouraged  in  this,  because  Mrs.  Fox  in- 
variably spoke  of  the  veins  being  like  intermina- 
ble undulating  black  ribbons.  The  uppermost 
one  she  assured  me  dipped  amazingly  deep,  till 
it  neared  the  level  lands  at  the  base  of  the  Mil- 
ton Hills  or  Blue  Ridges,  where  it  came  nearer 
the  surface.  To  the  east  of  duincy,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  particularly  under  a  certain  farm, 
which  from  a  series  of  observations  has  been 
identified  to  be  the  estate  of  the  Hon.  John  Q. 
Adams,  there  are  three  thick  veins,  one   above 


SOMETHING    SURPRISING.  51 

the  other,  separated  some  fifteen  feet,  more  or 
less,  by  earthy  matter.  Ali  three  finally  dip 
down  suddenly  under  Quincy  bay,  seaward,  un- 
der and  beyond  President  Quincy's  Salt  Works. 
On  the  north  and  northeast  side  of  the  Milton 
Hills,  Mrs.  Fox  considers  this  coal  to  be  a  com- 
pact anthracite  ;  and  she  also  remarked  to  me, 
at  the  same  time,  that  in  ten  years  more,  the 
arrival  of  a  cargo  of  hard  coal  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, would  be  as  ridiculous,  as  the  proverb  has 
it,  as  carrying  coals  to  New-Castle.  Quincy  is 
destined  to  great  importance  in  the  coal-trade 
hereafter. 

Connecticut  has  coal  too,  distributed  particu- 
larly on  the  margin  of  Long  Island  Sound,  and 
on  both  sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut 
river,  at  Lyme  and  Saybrook.  Unfortunately, 
the  greatest  proportion  of  it  lies  quite  in  the 
Sound,  where  it  is  impossible  to  raise  it.  Weth- 
ersfield  abounds  with  coal  in  broad  sheets,  but 
little  beneath  the  onion  beds,  which  could  be 
mined  to  good  profit. 

At  this  stage  of  the  survey,  Mrs.  Fox  was  re- 
quested to  peep  under  the  city  of  Hartford,  be- 
ing convinced  in  my  own  mind  that  if  coal  veins 
were  in  Wethersfield,  Hartford  was  not  wholly 
destitute.     To  my  vexation,  however,  she  said 


52  SOMETHING    SURPRISING. 

not  a  particle  was  to  be  found  there.  In  the 
search,  she  perceived  a  strange  colleotion  of 
great  bones,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  she  judged, 
from  the  steamboat  landing,  nearly  under  a  cer- 
tain wooden  house,  rather  old,  to  which  was  at- 
tached a  small  garden.  The  front  door  is  shaded 
by  evergreen.  In  the  collection  is  one  large 
skeleton,  "  long  as  a  church  !  "  having  three  legs 
on  each  side.  On  the  neck  is  a  monstrons  stone, 
pressing  the  vertebrae  into  the  hard  clay.  As 
the  upper  part  of  the  skull  is  broken  in,  it  seems 
as  though  the  monster  had  been  suddenly  killed 
by  the  stone,  hurled  with  resistless  force  from  an 
unknown  source.  Twenty  or  thirty  teeth  are 
within  a  foot  or  two,  variously  fractured,  as  if 
violently  wrenched  from  their  deep  sockets.  On- 
ly a  few  rods  from  the  bank  of  the  river,  in  Glas- 
tenbury,  there  lies  another  ferocious  looking 
nondescript  monster,  stretched  out  at  full  length, 
so  very  near  the  water,  that  one  or  two  more 
spring  floods  will  certainly  expose  the  bones  of 
the  tail. 

If  there  is  not  enterprise  enough  in  the  good 
city  of  Hartford  to  redeem  these  valuable  fossil 
remains,  it  will  be  a  reproach  to  their  intelli- 
gence. Once  obtained,  their  naturalists  would 
possess  the  rarest,  richest  monuments  of  the 
world  before  the  flood. 


SOMETHING    SURPRISING.  53 

A  cursory  examination  only,  was  had  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  Such  a  multitude  of  mag- 
nificent objects  presented  themselves,  as  it  were, 
that  she  was  quite  confounded,  indeed,  over- 
whelmed by  the  exhibition.  The  most  common 
sight  where  there  were  plains  bordering  upon 
streams,  were  the  same  kind  of  great  bones 
which  are  buried  at  Glastenbury.  She  saw, 
too,  columns  of  water  rising  from  unfathomable 
depths,  boiling  and  sparkling  towards  the  sur- 
face, through  inclined  canals,  which  were  small 
in  some  parts,  and  bulging  into  wide  tubes  in 
others.  Within  seventy  feet  of  the  surface, 
many  of  them  coalesce  ;  the  main  stream  pur- 
suing a  horizontal  direction  to  an  unknown 
destination.  In  four  different  counties,  great 
white  stones,  or  as  they  might  be  called  quartz 
mountains,  are  conspicuous  objects  to  a  person 
capable  of  visiting  distant  regions  by  the  aid  of 
Animal  Magnetism.  I  take  these  to  be  pure 
rock  salt,  all  the  water  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  the  article  in  the  interior  of  the  State,  merely 
holding  in  solution  a  small  quantity  of  salt, 
which  it  obtains  in  passing  over  the  crystallized 
masses. 

Amongst  other  topics,  we  happened  to  be  dis- 
coursing, on  a  certain  occasion,  about  the  primi- 


54  SOMETHING    SURPRISING. 

tive  inhabitants  of  America  ;  and  I  suggested  to 
Mrs.  Fox  that  sufficient  memorials  were  hidden 
in  the  earth,  could  they  be  brought  up,  to  estab- 
lish the  truth  of  Indian  traditions.  The  conver- 
sation greatly  interested  her ;  and  being  free  to 
lend  her  assistance  to  discover  how  far  my  theory 
could  be  sustained  by  facts,  a  time  was  assigned 
for  an  experiment.  Knowing  that  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  would,  in  all  probability,  yield  the 
best  antiquarian  harvest,  if  one  was  to  be  realiz- 
ed at  all,  Mrs.  Fox's  clairvoyance  was  put  in 
requisition  for  a  grand  inspection  of  celebrated 
sites  in  Ohio,  Missouri,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Ar- 
kansas, and  Wisconsin  Territory. 


CHAPTER  V. 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 


Those  who  would  enlarge  their  sphere  of 
knowledge,  need  not  travel  beyond  the  bounda- 
ries of  our  own  happy  country,  to  be  convinced 
that  America  has  been  the  theatre  on  which  man 
has  figured  through  all  the  phases  of  human  na- 
ture, from  the  wildest  condition  of  savage  life,  to 
the  day  in  which  we  live,  and  that  the  revolu- 
tions he  has  passed  through,  from  an  era  to 
which  no  written  memorial  refers,  and  no  tradi- 
tion reaches,  is  demonstrated  by  a  countless 
number  of  magnificent  remains,  the  labors  of 
his  hands,  whose  design  cannot  be  ascertained, 
and  which  still  promise  to  lesist  the  physical 
changes  of  the  globe,  unessentially  impaired  for 
unnumbered  generations  to  come. 

If  any  light  could  be  thrown  upon  the  internal 
structure  of  the  mounds,  the  great  unspeaking 


56       RESEARCHES  IN  THE  MOUNDS. 

wonders  of  the  western  division  of  the  United 
States,  I  felt  it  an  imperious  duty  to  collect  it. 
By  the  same  indulgent  kindness,  which  has 
characterized  Mrs.  Fox  through  a  succession  of 
fatiguing  researches  into  things  which  she  knew 
nothing  of  before  they  were  offered  for  her  elu- 
cidation, the  important  contributions  to  the 
stock  of  antiquarian  lore  already  collected,  has 
been  procured.  I  have  long  reflected  upon  the 
intention  of  the  builders  of  the  mounds,  but  I 
do  not  feel  that  the  object  is  yet  discovered. 
However,  I  am  fully  prepared  to  display  their 
contents,  but  regret  that  the  learned  will  prob- 
ably be  obliged  to  theorize,  as  they  always  have, 
without  sufficient  data  on  the  exact  use  which 
was  originally  made  of  them. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  not  a  tumulus, 
either  large  or  small,  in  which  the  nucleus  is 
not  a  human  skeleton.  Within  an  earth-walled 
enclosure,  on  the  north  fork  of  Paint  Creek, 
near  Chilicothe,  are  six  miniature  tumuli,  sur- 
rounded by  a  double  circular  wall.  Mrs.  Fox 
saw  in  the  centres  of  the  three  largest,  a  skele- 
ton in  each,  lying  upon  its  right  sides,  with 
their  heads  to  the  west.  They  were  wrapped 
in  a  firm  twilled  twine  cloth,  and  a  stone  image, 
resembling,  faintly,  the  body  of  a  man,  severed  at 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS.  57 

the  lower  part  of  the  abdomen,  was  grasped  by 
the  right  hand.  A  circular  silver  plate,  origin- 
ally, perhaps,  a  medallion,  bearing  the  embossed 
representation  of  the  sun,  is  figured  on  the  three. 
Two  skulls,  deprived  of  their  eye  teeth,  are  lash- 
ed to  their  feet.  These,  I  am  inclined  to  sup- 
pose, were  sacred  individuals,  perhaps  priests. 
Within  the  three  smaller  mounds,  are  the  bones 
of  children,  in  such  a  state  of  preservation,  that 
Mrs^  Fox  suspects  that  they  were  embalmed. 
Each  one  is  laid  in  the  skin  of  a  great  bird,  the 
feathers  siill  adhering.  A  little  bag  is  suspend- 
ed to  their  necks,  containing  red  paint,  and  two 
square  pieces  of  metal,  perforated  in  the  middle. 
They  are  in  a  compact  row,  and  seemed  to  have 
been  bound  together  by  a  serpent,  whose  head 
and  tail  are  tied  together  in  a  knot.  These,  too, 
were  probably  the  offspring  of  the  priesthood, 
or  else  sacrificed  on  some  momentous  occasion. 
Two  mounds,  standing  outside  the  ancient 
fort  at  Circleville,  Ohio,  are  full  of  relics.  Bones 
of  men,  but  twenty  heads  to  one  frame,  are  buri- 
ed in  a  pit,  ten  feet  deep,  over  which  the 
mounds  were  raised.  Sea-shells,  particularly 
conchs,  sheets  of  mica-slate  and  small  red  east- 
ern pots,  are  variously  interspersed  throughout 
the  structure.  More  than  a  cord  of  wood  is  bu- 
5* 


58  RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 

ried  at  the  bottom,  as  if  a  vat  of  logs  was  first 
built  to  receive  the  remains. 

At  Marietta,  ten  thousand  curiosities  are  bu- 
ried hither  and  thither,  even  down  as  low  as 
ninety  feet.  Iron  axes,  iron  shoes,  copper  hel- 
mets, swords,  spears,  sculptured  resemblances 
of  serpents,  lizards,  and  other  reptiles,  are  abun- 
dant. On  the  southern  bank  of  the  Musking- 
um river,  astonishing  revelations  are  to  be  made. 
Mrs.  Fox  said  it  was  impossible  to  describe  one 
hundredth  part  of  what  she  saw.  It  occurs  to 
me  to  mention  that  magazines  of  corn  are  plenty 
in  the  vicinity  of  Marietta.  She  thinks  that  in 
two  of  those  under-ground  stores,  as  much  as 
two  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  in  the  ear,  is  so 
sound  and  dry,  that  it  would  make  sweet  meal. 
By  analyzing  the  ground  within  a  line  of  forts 
at  the  junction  of  the  Muskingum  and  the  Ohio, 
four  flat  stones  may  be  dug  up,  bearing  inscrip- 
tions. She  was  shown  a  copy  of  the  characters 
on  the  famous  Dighton  rock,  and  asked  to  com- 
pare them ;  but  there  was  no  tangible  resemblance. 
Each  letter,  if  letters  they  are,  on  the  Marietta 
tablets,  is  crowned  by  thepicture  of  a  man's  face; 
and,  projecting  from  the  mouth,  is  the  shape  of 
an  arrow.  One  stone  has  nine  lines  upon  it, 
another  one,  embraced  at  the  extremities  by  the 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS.  59 

talons  of  a  hawk  ;  the  others  are  precisely 
alike, — being,  apparently,  duplicates,  written 
from  top  to  bottom.  In  a  field,  twenty  rods,  or 
thereabouts,  west  of  the  largest  fort,  is  an  earth- 
en vessel,  of  the  capacity  of  fifteen  or  sixteen 
hogsheads,  completely  filled  with  flutes.  Some 
of  them  are  made  of  heron's  legs,  and  some  of 
cane-stalks.  One  of  the  instruments  is  a  fac- 
simile of  a  trombone,  excepting  it  is  without 
.keys,  and  made  of  brass.* 

Newark,  in  Licking  county,  Ohio,  was  ran- 
'sacked  quite  thoroughly;  but,  notwithstanding 
the  glowing  descriptions  of  Caleb  Atwater,  Esq., 
it  is  rather  a  poverty-stricken  depot.  The  artifi- 
cial pond,  marked  F.,  in  his  map  of  the  ruins  be- 
tween Racoon  Creek  and  the  South  Fork  of 
Licking  river,  is  the  only  place  worth  exploring. 
A  considerable  quantity  of  long  bars  of  lead  lie 
in  the  pond, — and  in  the  part  marked  C,  is  a 
magazine  of  grain,   similar  to  those  described  at 

*  When  these  surprising  revelations  reach  Marietta, 
I  cannot  believe  they  will  go  unheeded.  The  Antiquari- 
an Society  ought  to  send  an  agent  to  that  fertile  spot,  to 
secure  the  harvest  of  relics.  The  trumpery  constituting 
the  Museum,  is  getting  old,  hence  a  spirited  movement  is 
necessary,  particularly  as  the  manufacture  of  American 
antiquities,  by  the  Connecticut  pedlars,  was  suspended, 
during  the  late  pressure. 


60  RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 

Chilicotlie.  It  is  all  shelled,  and  appears  to  have 
been  parched. 

Many  ambitious  antiquarians  have  lived  and 
died,  who  would  have  made  large  sacrifices  to 
have  been  gratified  with  a  knowledge  of  the  con- 
tents of  a  very  great  mound,  designated  the  Big 
Grave,  not  far  from  Wheeling.  Mr.  Tomlinson, 
the  owner,  and  others  equally  interested  in  it,  as 
property,  never  would  permit  any  excavations  in 
it.  Its  circumference  is  three  hundred  yards — 
the  diameter,  consequently,  three  hundred  feet  ; 
and  its  height,  just  ninety.  I  am  proud  to  un- 
fold the  mystery,  since  Mrs.  Fox  has  placed  it 
within  my  power  to  gratify  the  world.* 

In  the  first  place,  the  foundation  of  that  im- 
mensely large   mound  is  laid  on  four   hundred 

*  A  general  complaint  has  been  made  against  mound- 
owners,  by  travellers,  that  no  facilities  are  offered  them 
for  prosecuting  researches  in  the  western  country.  This 
will  explain  the  reasons  why  every  volume  issued  under 
the  authority  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  is 
made  up  of  nursery  tales.  It  is  not  customary,  in  that 
musty  body,  to  receive  a  communication  for  their  archives, 
not  bearing  the  impress  of  one  thousand  years.  At  any 
rate,  to  create  a  stir,  it  must  be  perfectly  illegible.  Consis- 
tency is  the  order  of  the  day,  with  the  fellows,  for  a  new 
member  must  be  in  his  dotage  before  election.  Young 
men  are  unkno%\Ti  to  the  Worcestier  Antiquarian  Pre- 
torians. 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS.  61 

four-footed  animals,  placed  in  a  manner  to  de- 
scribe an  octagon, — the  heads  being  turned 
outward.  They  are  either  elephants  or  mam- 
moths,— but  I  have  no  means  of  knowing  which. 
On  the  neck  of  each  is  the  skeleton  of  a  man,  al- 
together taller  than  any  variety  of  the  human 
species  at  present  known  to  naturalists.  Brace- 
lets are  on  their  arms  above  the  elbows,  and  on 
the  ankles.  They  appear  to  have  been  crushed 
down  by  a  mass  of  earth  suddenly  dropped  from 
above  ;  yet  such  could  not  have  been  the  fact. 
Over  these,  constituting  a  flooring,  is  a  structure 
of  sand,  two  feet  and  four  inches  thick,  and  over 
that,  bushels  of  teeth,  of  all  kinds,  from  those  of 
men,  to  those  of  fishes.  Where  so  many  could 
have  been  procured,  is  truly  surprising.  Over 
these,  again,  are  millions,  apparently,  of  earthen 
vessels,  of  all  manner  of  patterns,  bearing  a  gro- 
tesque variety  of  raised  figures.  Some  of  these 
articles  are  in  the  form  of  men,  in  all  possible  at- 
titudes; some  are  like  monkies,  hawks,  ground- 
hogs, foxes,  racoons,  rabbits,  crows  and  serpents. 
They  surround  a  central  ring,  bounded  by  a  curb- 
stone, enclosing  a  shallow  well, holding  a  black 
'mass,  seemingly  consolidated  into  stone.  Conjec- 
ture has  made  this  to  be  blood,  poured  into  the  well 
— taken,  perhaps,  from  the  dead  bodies  under- 


b»  RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 

neath.  The  well  is  covered  by  an  earthen  cov- 
er, nine  feet  in  diameter,  bearing  the  twelve 
signs  of  the  zodiac  on  the  upper  surface.  Quite 
in  the  centre  of  that,  a  staple  passes  through, 
keyed  in  the  under  side  by  a  copper  nail.  Over 
all  these  things,  are  concentric  circles  of  human 
bodies,  systematically  sized.  Small  infants,  ly- 
ing face  down,  have  all  their  feet  in  contact  over 
the  well.  Beyond  them  is  another  size,  and  then 
another,  and  so  on,  till  the  exterior  circle  is  made 
of  gigantic  bones,  bespeaking  them,  when  alive, 
to  have  been^  certainly,  eight  feet  tall.  Again, 
over  these,  is  another  coat  of  earth  and  rich 
mould,  five  feet  thick.  Into  this  is  stuck  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  of  arrows,  the  stone-pomts 
up,  which  gave  the  mound,  at  that  stage  of  its 
building,  the  appearance  of  a  forest  of  weapons. 
Every  other  one,  within  one  inch  of  the  lanceo- 
lated  head,  is  ornamented  with  a  red  cord. 
Over  these  is  twenty-seven  feet  of  earth,  being  a 
promiscuous  mixture  of  clay,  sand,  and  gravel. 

All  the  remainder,  quite  to  the  summit,  pre- 
senting an  area  of  forty  feet  in  diameter,  is  made 
up  of  earth.  Quite  in  the  centre  of  this  elevated 
table,  there  is  now  a  depression,  caused  by  the 
decay  of  the  bodies  at  the  base. 

People  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  would  marvel 


RESEARCHES    IN    TITE    MOUNDS.  63 

if  they  knew  what  lay  under  their  feet.  How- 
ever, by  the  inspection  of  a  mound  familiar  to 
them  all,  a  sufficient  number  of  objects  would  be 
recovered  to  compensate  for  every  outlay  of 
money  in  carrying  on  the  labor.  In  that,  there 
is  a  row  of  capacious  earthen  vessels,  somewhat 
like  tea-kettles,  having  spouts  to  resemble  ser- 
pents. These  constitute,  as  it  were,  an  inclosure, 
within  the  embrace  of  which,  is  an  infinitude  of 
balls,  perhaps  four  inches  in  diameter,  made  to 
look  much  like  common  cannon-balls.  Over 
them  is  a  stratum  of  white  sand,  and  above  the 
sand,  in  the  very  centre,  is  a  triangular  brass 
tablet,  two  inches  thick,  bearing  singular  char- 
acters on  both  sides.  It  is  so  large  that  the 
angles  are  the  boundaries  of  a  circle  twelve  feet 
across.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  brass 
alone  would  be  a  prize  worth  digging  for.  At 
each  angle  of  the  triangle,  is  a  human  head, 
probably  decapitated  for  the  purpose,  facing  in- 
wardly. A  very  fine  composition  of  clay,  sand, 
and  vegetable  fibres  overlays  this  precious  relic 
to  the  depth  of  one  foot  only.  A  circle  was 
then  made  of  human  bodies,  on  their  haunches, 
all  facing  the  centre — fifty-seven  in  all,  who 
give  striking  evidence  of  having  been  slain,  as 
all  their  skulls  are  fractured  at  the  occiput,  as 


64  RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 

though  Struck  with  a  heavy  bludgeon.  In  the 
right  hand  of  each  is  a  delicate  red  cup,  and, 
perched  upon  the  thumb  of  the  left  hand,  the 
figure  of  a  little  bird,  wrought  of  clay. 

Precisely  under  the  Medical  College,  in  the 
city  of  Cincinnati,  which  appears  to  have  been 
a  site  fixed  upon  for  rearing  a  great  mound, 
from  the  preparations  made  in  the  earth,  but 
which,  for  causes  forever  unknown,  was  aban- 
doned after  considerable  progress  had  been  made 
by  those  engaged  in  it,  are  many  unique  articles, 
not  at  all  easy  to  describe.  A  well  was  first  dug 
thirty-seven  feet,  and  the  bottom  covered  with  a 
sculptured  tortoise,  the  shell  just  fitting  the  sides. 
On  its  back  is  the  representation  of  a  warrior, 
dressed  in  armor,  holding  a  spear  in  the  right 
hand,  and  a  lion  by  the  nape  of  the  neck,  with 
the  left. 

A  variety  of  things  in  character  with  the  con- 
tents of  the  well,  are  lying  at  various  depths,  all 
over  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  and  especially  with- 
in six  and  eight  hundred  feet  of  the  water. 

I  urged  Mrs.  Fox  to  consider  some  section  of 
Illinois,  with  reference  to  antiquarian  relics. 
She  obligingly  made  a  slight  excursion  there, 
but  expressed  herself  fatigued.  On  the  bank  of 
a  river  she  saw  the  frame  of  a  steamboat,  with 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS.  65 

Eimnsville  on  tlie  stern.  I  then  inquired  what 
there  was  in  the  neighborhood  ?  to  which  she 
quickly  replied,  **  Nothing  but  bones."  Under 
a  large  store,  Mrs.  Fox  assured  me  that  there 
were  ten  skeletons,  in  a  sitting  posture,  and  all 
of  them  had  heavy  lead  caps  on,  shaped  like  a 
common  tin  wash-bowl. 

Here  my  research  into  and  among  the  mounds 
was  interrupted  on  account  of  the  soreness  of 
Mrs.  Fox's  eyes,  brought  on  by  long  and  contin- 
ued exertion.  Although  closed  by  the  lids,  the 
visual  apparatus  was  necessarily  intensely  exer- 
cised in  every  telescopic  observation.  Not  wish- 
ing to  become  too  importunate,  and  thus  lose  my 
only  chance  of  penetrating  the  secrets  of  the  soil, 
I  told  her  if  she  would  favor  me  with  a  few- 
glances  nearer  home,  which  would  be  attended 
with  less  expenditure  of  ocular  strength,  I  would 
not  urge  her  to  prolong  the  exploration  any  long- 
er, but  wait  till  she  felt  herself  sufficiently  re- 
cruited and  renovated  to  renew  our  inquiries. 

A  look  was  now  taken  of  the  harbor  of  New 
York,  between  the  battery  and  Jersey  city.  In- 
stantly, about  ten  rods  from  the  battery,  the  first 
object  she  saw  was  a  huge  iron-bound  box, 
nearly  covered  by  mud,  filled   with  American 

half  dollars.     Nothing,  apparently,  would  be  less 
6 


66 


RESEARCHES    IN    THE    MOUNDS. 


difficult  than  to  drag  it  up  by  a  common  rake. 
On  East  River,  she  said  there  were  dollars 
enough  imbedded  in  the  mud,  close  by  the  ends 
of  the  wharves,  to  load  a  hand-cart.  The  rem- 
nants, too,  of  human  beings,  were  promiscuously 
strewn  over  acres  of  bottom.  The  bones,  too,  of 
children,  were  in  horrible  profusion  in  every  di- 
rection. Surely,  the  police  is  in  duty  bound  to 
inquire  into  this  dreadful  appearance. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES. 

Every  physician,  of  liberal  views,  has  been  con- 
vinced of  the  utility  of  the  practice  of  Animal 
Magnetism  in  alhiying  agonizing  pain,  and  in 
shortening,  if  not  permanently  overcoming  dan- 
gerous maladies.  When  the  mode  of  producing 
somnambulism  was  first  taught,  every  medical 
philanthropist  hailed  the  discovery  with  benevo- 
lent satisfaction,  because  it  was  foreseen  that 
the  exercise  of  clairvoyancy  would  wholly  super- 
sede the  stethescope,  an  awkward  instrument  at 
best,  which,  in  the  hands  of  experienced  auscul- 
turists,  about  as  frequently  misleads  as  it  gives 
a  true  indication. 

At  the  season  the  series  of  experiments  were 
in  progress,  of  which  this  little  memoir  is  the 
record,  several  of  my  intimate  personal  friends 
were  extremely  ill ;  two  of  them  were  considered 


DO  PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES. 

to  be  in  the  last  stages  of  pulmonary  consump- 
tion. The  field  to  which  Mrs.  Fox  was  invited, 
was  indeed  new  to  her,  but  an  ample  sphere  for 
the  exercise  of  her  predominant  kindness  of 
heart,  lay  within  it,  and  she,  as  I  had  anticipated, 
cordially  assisted  me  in  many  pathological  re- 
searches, to  the  perfect  restoration  of  several, 
and,  confessedly,  to  the  relief  of  others,  who  oth- 
erwise might  not  at  this  hour  have  been  alive. 

Residing  at  Roxbury,  is  a  young  lady  of  the 
first  respectability,  who  had  been  afl^licted  with 
a  swelling  of  the  right  foot.  The  sense  of  feel- 
ing was  quite  lost  in  it,  so  that  pinching  could 
not  be  felt,  nor  could  she  distinguish  the  appli- 
cation of  hot  from  cold  water.  The  case  had 
been  minutely  stated  to  me  by  t%vo  medical  at- 
tendants, who  would  have  thanked  me  for  any 
suggestions  calculated  to  benefit  their  patient. 

One  afternoon,  I  said  to  Mrs.  F., — In  a  charm- 
ing house  on  Mount  Pleasant,  there  sits  a  young 
lady,  with  one  foot  supported  on  an  ottoman,  or, 
rather,  it  is  presumable  that  she  is  thus  seated  at 
this  hour  of  the  day.  Pray  look  at  her,  and  tell 
me  whether  she  is  indisposed  or  in  good  health. 
Mrs.Fox  has  been  magnetized,  it  must  be  recol- 
lected, a  preparatory  step,  invariably,  before  be- 
ginning to  propound  questions. 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES.  G9 

She  apparently  gave  herself  up  to  profound 
thoughtfulness — so  long  continued  that  I  took  oc- 
casion to  repeat  what  I  had  before  said.  "  Sir," 
said  she,  "  I  am  now  looking  at  the  poor  young 
lady's  foot;  how  badly  it  is  swollen.  Why  don't 
the  surgeon  draw  out  the  needle  which  passes 
directly  through  the  great  nerve  that  turns  round 
the  ankle  joint  to  reach  the  sole  ?  "  Not  suc- 
ceeding in  confining  her  attention  to  the  foot 
any  longer,  because  it  gave  her  unpleasant  emo- 
tions, I  wrote  a  note  the  day  following  to  Drs. 

,  praying   them  to  search  for  a   needle 

somewhere  near  the  inner  maleolar  process. 
They  did  so,  detected  it,  and  immediately  ex- 
tracted it.  From  that  hour  she  began  to  recov- 
er, and  in  six  weeks  was  restored  to  her  accus- 
tomed health. 

Another  case  was  submitted  to  her  inspection. 
The  circumstances  were  essentially  these.  A 
gentleman  who  has  always  lived  freely,  though 
temperately,  till  he  become  an  alderman,  lost 
his  appetite,  could  not  sleep,  but  seemed  never 
to  be  satisfied  with  drinking  an  Italian  liqueur, 
called  marischino.  He  fed  on  the  lightest  fari- 
naceous food,  in  small  quantities  too,  and  his  ab- 
dominal rotundity  was  the  amazement  of  all  who 
passed  him  in  his  usual  morning  walks.  I  had 
6* 


70  PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES. 

not  the  least  acquaintance  with  this  man,  what- 
ever, but  his  monstrous  back  struck  me  always 
with  astonishment.  Mrs.  Fox  was  requested  to 
examine  the  vital  organs — which  she  did,  alter- 
nately, and  told  me  that  in  his  stomach  was  a 
living  cuttle-fish,  over  a  foot  in  length.  Never 
did  the  communication  of  any  intelligence  ap- 
pear more  ridiculous.  The  idea  of  a  squid^  oth- 
erwise cuttle-fish,  being  imprisoned,  and  alive 
too,  in  a  stomach,  exceeded  belief.  I  dared  not 
mention  this  to  any  one,  for  fear  of  becoming 
the  jest  of  all  rational  people  in  the  town.  The 
latter  part  of  October,  the  great  monster  man 
died.  A  post  mortem  was  had,  and  there  lay 
the  squid  brisk  as  ever.  How  the  creature  found 
admittance,  is  a  problem.  The  most  reasonable 
thing  upon  the  matter  is  this,  viz.  that  the  Ggg 
was  swallowed  and  subsequently  developed  in 
the  stomach,* 

Miss  M.  T.,  a  maiden  lady,  of  thirty,  spare 
habit,  tall,  with  blue  eyes  and  red  hair,  had  been 

*  Miss  Brackett  detected  a  diseased  spleen  in  a  man, 
very  much  in  the  same  manner.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Green 
has  a  plenty  of  illustrations  of  the  faculty  possessed  by 
somnambulists,  of  finding  out  the  state  of  the  viscera.  A 
visit  to  Pawtuxet  would  be  a  treat  to  the  well-wishers  of 
magnetism  in  this  country. 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES.  71 

ailing  from  her  eighteenth  year,  without  having 
had  any  permanent  relief,  akhough  she  had  con- 
sulted all  the  medical  men  of  eminence  in  Bos- 
ton. She  has  suffered  from  a  fixed  pain  in  the 
left  side  of  the  chest,  the  whole  time.  Blisters, 
setons,  tartar-emetic  ointments,  besides  a  whole 
shop  of  drugs,  had  been  prescribed,  without  pro- 
ducing any  sort  of  relief.  Mrs.  Fox,  with  a  lit- 
tle hesitation,  pronounced  the  disease  to  be  a 
conversion  of  the  left  lung  into  solid  stone!  and 
moreover  predicted  that  a  judicious  administra- 
tion of  Brandreth's  pills  would  restore  the  lost 
function  of  the  organ.  This  information  was 
communicated  to  her  friends,  who  went  to  work 
in  earnest  to  apply  the  remedy.  Seventeen  box- 
es of  those  invaluable  pills  cured  her.*      I  learn, 

*  By  turning  to  the  daily  papers,  of  Nov.  20th,  1837,  Dr. 
Brandreth's  advertisement  of  his  arrival  in  Boston  may 
be  seen.  It  was  to  give  the  vegetable  pills,  that  the  fami- 
ly of  the  lady  sent  for  him.  This  was  the  special  occasion 
of  this  veiy  distinguished  benefactor's  visit  to  the  literary 
emporium.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  interference  of  polit- 
ical caucuses,  and  the  public  rejoicings  on  account  of  the 
Pawnee  delegation  of  Indians,  whose  lodgings  were  on 
the  floor  of  Concert  Hall,  Dr.  Brandreth  would  have  re- 
ceived the  congratulations  of  the  Society  for  cradling 
children.  As  it  was,  the  Fifty  Associates  paid  him  their 
respects,  and  bespoke  an  annual  supply  of  the  genuine 
pills  for  all  their  tenants. 


72  PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES. 

since  the  compositor  began  with  the  manuscript 
of  this  volume,  that  Miss  T.  is  entirely  festered, 
— and  further,  that  she  will  enter  the  silken 
bonds  of  wedlock  the  coming  spring. 

Once  more. — Sitting,  one  morning,  in  the 
reading-room  of  the  Tremont  House,  I  noticed 
a  Southerner,  of  respectable,  gentlemanly  ap- 
pearance, whose  complexion  was  cadaverous, 
and  otherwise  sickly  to  look  at,  leaning  back  in 
an  arm-chair,  with  the  Morning  Post  in  one 
hand,  and  the  Atlas  in  the  other.  By  and  by, 
he  sprang  upon  his  feet,  jarring  the  furniture, 
and  somewhat  disturbing  the  town-loungers, 
who  haunt  that  pleasant  apartment  to  the  posi- 
tive annoyance  of  travellers,  swore  unutterable 
execrations  against  whigs  and  tories  ;  and  then 
sunk  down  upon  his  knees.  Every  person  pres- 
ent flew  to  his  assistance;  even  Mr.  J.  T.,  who 
was  never  before  known  to  relinquish  a  newspa- 
per, however  much  it  might  be  desired  by  others, 
till  all  the  advertisements  were  read  three  times 
over,  proffered  his  services.  Mr.  Boyden  direct- 
ed the  way  to  a  snug  parlor,  occupied  by  Mr. 
Wilson,  tliat  being  his  name,  in  the  second  sto- 
ry. A  physician  came  directly,  examined  the 
pulse,  ordered  mustard-seed  to  the  feet,  and  an 
ounce  of  linseed-oil,  dissolved  in  a  quart  of  hot 


J^OSt    V.S.  Atlc'/S 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES.  73 

water,  to  be  given  at  suitable  intervals,  till  the 
whole  was  consumed-*  Pretty  soon,  the  patient 
opened  liis  eyes,  and  so  far  recovered  the  tone 
of  the  organs  of  speech,  as  to  say  to  the  by-stand- 
ers,  that  he  was  sorry  to  have  created  the  pres- 
ent alarm,  because  he  did  not  consider  himself 
in  any  particular  danger.  He  further  continued, 
— that,  for  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life,  he 
had  been  subject  to  a  nephritic  complaint,  that 
produced  excruciating  torment,  whenever  his 
mind  became  excited  on  politics.  Why  politics, 
more  than  any  other  subject;  should  bereave  a 
man  of  reason,  no  person  has  had  the  sagacity  to 
explain.  The  monstrous,  terribly  distorted  ac- 
counts of  party  aspects  in  Georgia,  the  state  of 
his  nativity,  in  the  two  papers  referred  to,  brought 
on  the  old  pains,  with  a  host  of  concomitants, 
usually  attendant. 

After  he  was  quite  comfortable,  I  took  my 
leave,  without  once  intimating  my  professional 

*  An  old  notion  prevails,  that  oil  and  water  cannot  be 
mixed.  It  is  time  this  vulgar  error  should  be  exposed. 
Dr.  L.,  kno'tt-n  to  all  the  world  for  his  skill,  never  had  any 
difficulty  in  combining  them.  The  whole  misunderstand- 
ing between  the  city  authorities  and  the  ex-fire-deparl- 
ment,  arose  out  of  this  trifling  affair — only  one  party  knew 
how  to  mix  oil  and  water. 


74  PATHOLOGICAL    INC^UIRIES. 

character,  and,  within  a  few  hours,  consulted 
Mrs.  Fox,  as  to  the  nature  of  the  morbid  condi- 
tion of  Mr.  Wilson.  No  clue  was  given  her  to 
his  present  or  past  state,  nor  did  I  even  intimate 
what  had  been  witnessed  just  before.  I  simply 
told  her  that  a  gentleman  at  the  Tremont  House, 
dressed  thus  and  so,  of  such  and  such  character- 
istics, was  sick,  and  I  wished  for  some  knowl- 
edge on  the  subject. 

She  designated  him,  in  her  somnambulic  prep- 
aration, from  more  than  one  hundred  gentle- 
men, then  in  the  house,  and  told  me  as  unhesi- 
tatingly as  a  person  would  make  a  declaration 
of  facts  then  before  their  eyes,  that  a  patch  of 
cotton  cloth  was  in  contact  with  his  right  kid- 
ney. Cotton  cloth  touching  a  man's  kidney  ! — 
Impossible  !  I  exclaimed.  She  insisted  upon  it, 
that  there  was  no  mistake  in  the  matter, — the 
cotton  was  there,  and  if  an  adroit  operation  was 
performed,  it  might  yet  be  extracted,  without  se- 
rious discomfiture  to  the  patient.  This  improb- 
able description  of  the  cause  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
nephritics,  as  I  then  regarded  it,  weighed  so 
ponderously  upon  my  mind,  that  I  could  not 
rest  with  comfort,  till  1  called  on  him,  which  I 
was  justified  in  doing,  as  an  act  of  courtesy,  to 
inquire  how  he  found  himself,  since  the  fit.     A 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES.  /5 

general  conversation  ensued  at  this  call,  and 
by  degrees  I  learned  that  in  his  younger  days 
he  had  been  guilty  of  fighting  a  duel,  and  that 
he  was  badlv  wounded  in  the  small  of  the  back. 
The  wound  was  healed  years  and  years  ago,  and 
he  did  not  conceive  that  the  disease  of  which  he 
complained  had  the  remotest  possible  connection 
with  the  old  wound.  I  boldly  announced  to  him 
that  a  patch  of  cotton  cloth  was  enclosed  in  the 
bed  of  the  kidney,  in  contact  with  the  psoas 
muscle,  and  was  the  real  source  of  all  that  he 
had  suffered.  He  was  ultimately  persuaded  to 
enter  the  hospital,  where  the  rag  was  taken  out. 
It  may  be  seen  by  visiters,  on  inquiry,  at  any 
time.  Now  the  fact  was,  the  cotton  patch  was 
shot  from  a  rifle-pistol,  with  which  the  wound 
was  made.  Four  weeks  from  the  day  he  left 
the  Tremont,  he  returned,  sound  in  health  and 
strength. 

Now,  can  the  enemies  of  Animal  Magnetism 
show  any  objections  to  the  science,  when  it  thus 
becomes  an  important  auxiliary  to  surgery  ? — 
The  life  of  a  man  was  here  saved  from  an  un- 
timely grave,  and  through  the  exercise  of  that 
very  mysterious  power,  which  many,  otherwise 
rational  men,  hold  up  to  derision  and  contempt. 

Were  selfishness  a  predominant  trait  in  my 


76  PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES. 

character,  I  might  swell  this  report  to  inconve- 
nient dimensions,  with  cases  like  the  foregoing, 
corroborative  of  the  advantages  that  would  ac- 
crue to  society,  were  physicians  a  little  more 
obliging.  They  seem  to  array  themselves  in 
hostility  to  something  they  know  nothing  about. 
I  have  the  independence  to  disengage  myself 
from  the  prejudices  of  my  professional  brethren, 
whenever  they  manifest  too  much  devotion  to 
old  theories,  to  the  exclusion  of  new  pathologic- 
al facts. 

Although  magnetizers  are  pretty  common  in 
Boston,  and  some  forty  or  fifty  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  twelve  of  its  practitioners  now  treat  all 
febrile,  tetanic  and  parturient  affections,  by 
manipulations;  the  remaining  sixty-two  are  ob- 
stinate unbelievers.  At  Nashua,  Lowell,  Cam- 
bridge, Concord,  Salem,  and  Worcester,  I  am 
sure  the  light  of  pure  science  is  shining  with 
some  degree  of  splendor.  The  endowment  of  a 
professorship  of  Animal  IVIagnetism  at  the  Berk- 
shire Medical  Institution,  at  Fairfield,  N.  Y., 
and  at  Northampton,  as  a  necessary  legal  prepa- 
tion  before  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  I  hail  as 
the  dawning  of  a  marvellous  light.  Those  insti- 
tutions will  have  the  enviable  reputation  of  hav- 
ing availed  themselves  of  the  transcendant  ad- 


PATHOLOGICAL    INQUIRIES.  77 

vantages  of  the  science,  when  it  was  hooted  and 
despised  by  the  ignorant;  but  the  glory  of  hav- 
ing sent  out  polished,  learned  magnetizers,  will 
redound  to  their  reputation,  when  the  revilers 
of  common  sense  will  have  been  lost  in  the  rub- 
bish of  eternity. 

Columbia  College,  Schenectady,  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vermont,  and  Yale,  have  been  too  cau- 
tious ;  no  magnetism  is  taught  in  either  of  their 
Halls,  and  hence  their  classes  are  yearly  falling 
off*.  Old  Harvard,  on  the  contrary,  the  pride  of 
thousands,  whose  aspirations  are  for  the  posteri- 
ty of  their  alma  mater,  has  acted  nobly  in  coup- 
ling Animal  Magnetism  with  the  respectable 
Rumford  Professorship  of  Signs.* 

*  What  is  the  matter  1  With  all  the  means  of  being 
extensively  useful,  the  classes  are  not  equal  to  the  re- 
sources of  that  ancient  Institution.  It  cannot  be  in  conse- 
quence of  there  being  too  many  sinecures.  No,  nor  is 
there  any  want  of  talent  in  those  who  control  its  opera- 
tions. Even  the  elocution  of  the  radical  Dr.  Barber,  pro- 
fessor of  phrenolog}',  elocution  jelly,  commentator  general 
on  all  things  but  just  those  which  were  absolutely  necessary 
for  a  student  to  know,  had  not  sufficient  influence  to  mul- 
tiply sophomores,  beyond  the  ordinary  number.  Is  any 
man's  knowledge  honored  at  Cambridge,  whose  family 
has  not  the  means  of  adding  to  the  funds  1  Genius  finds 
Qo  encouragement  at  Harvard. 
7 


CHAPTER  Vir. 


PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE. 

No  one  entertains  a  more  decidedly  contempt- 
ible opinion  of  those  who  deal  in  slanders  and 
inuendoes,  than  myself:  and  I  would  onnocon- 
sideratio!!  be  instrumental  in  stirring  up  strife 
between  different  political  partisans,  however 
open  they  may  have  laid  themselves  to  severe 
animadversion.  It  so  happened,  repeatedly,  that 
Mrs.  Fox  was  left  in  a  magnetic  state,  after 
any  particular  series  of  observations  had  been 
made,  with  a  view  of  affording  her  rest,  a  more 
comfortable  rest  than  she  could  have  had  in 
a  noisy,  bustling  city,  had  she  been  always 
awakened  by  transverse  passes.  She  was  thus 
insulated  completely,  neither  hearing  the  voices' 
of  those  about  her,  unless  purposely  put  in 
magnetic  communication,  nor  taking  cogni- 
zance of  any  transactions  within  the  immediate 


PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE.  /» 

household.  If  the  sleep  was  likely  to  be  improp- 
erly prolonged,  her  daughter,  who  was  always 
vigilant,  broke  the  spell,  and  thus  restored  her 
to  voluntary  action. 

It  was  under  the  foregoing  circumstances, 
when  alone,  that  she  indulged  the  characteristic 
curiosity  of  the  sex,  to  look  through  society  and 
see  what  mankind  were  about  behind  the  scenes. 
As  the  engrossing  topic  in  the  early  part  of  No- 
vember related  to  the  coming  election,  she  di- 
rected her  eyes,  one  rainy  evening,  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  couiity  Committee.  Nothing,  of 
course  could  be  heard,  but  the  significant  gestic- 
ulations of  the  members  was  not  to  be  misappre- 
hended or  wrongfully  interpreted.  A  catalogue 
of  names  was  laid  on  the  table  before  the  pre- 
siding officer,  who  cast  a  knowing  eye  to  it,  then 
took  it  up,  pointed  to  several  of  the  names,  di- 
recting the  attention  of  the  association  to  one, 
particularly.  He  seized  a  tumbler  of  water, 
which  was  raised  to  the  lips,  but  he  never  tasted  a 
drop  of  it — shaking  his  head  violently,  still  look- 
ing and  pointing  at  the  ominous  name,  as  much 
as  to  say,  this  candidate  for  the  people's  suff- 
rages, drinks  no  water.  At  this  they  all  raised 
their  right  hands,  as  they  do  at  the  police  court. 
It  was  supposed,  therefore,  that  a  vote  was  taken, 


80  PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE. 

for  the  president  forthwith  erased  it  with  seem- 
ing satisfaciion.*  Mrs.  Fox  thought  she  discov- 
ered here  an  evident  influence  of  the  spirit  of 
temperance.  Every  person  at  all  conversant 
with  the  doings  of  the  Whig  General  Committee, 
knows  that  no  individual,  known  to  be  an  habitual 
consumer  of  ardent  spirit,  was  in  nomination  for 
any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  inhabitants. t  Long 
may  this  happy  change  in  the  public  sentiment 
remain.  It  has  purged  the  Legislature,  as  it  has 
the  national  councils,  of  brutes  in  the  shape  of 
men.  Let  no  drunkard  or  moderate  tippler,  be  a 
candidate  for  office,  however  humble  or  exalted, 
in  a  community  in  which  there  are  rights  to  be 

*  When  a  certain  notoriously  sober  candidate  was  of- 
ficially informed  that  the  State  could  dispense  with  his 
services,  he  made  bitter  lamentations.  Since  that  event- 
ful day  he  has  been  heard  to  mutter  in  the  purlieus  of 
Court  Square,  at  high  twelve,  the  first  line  of  the  first 
verse  of  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah. 

t  There  is  still  room  for  improvement,  which  will  be 
expressly  pointed  out  in  a  forth-coming  production.  Some 
very  decently  respectable  dead-weights  upon  societ)''  may 
rely  upon  having  faithful  portraits.  Mrs.  Fox  has  looked 
in  upon  them  at  their  secret  haunts,  and  wonders  that  thfeir 
incipient  carbuncled  visages,  their  gourmand  appetites, 
and  utter  rotteness  of  character,  is  not  perceived.  But  the 
day  of  developments  is  at  hand. 


I7z&  Coimtv  lo7?27rnttee. 


PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE. 


81 


preserved,  principles  to  maintain,  or  a  code  of 
morals  to  be  respected. 

Another  name  was  called.  The  President 
also  turned  it  to  the  committee,  showing,  by  his 
smiling  expression,  that  no  difficulties  were  in  the 
way.  All  voted,  as  they  did  before,  and  each  one 
wrote  it  on  a  skeleton  ticket  for  convenient  ref- 
erence. Up  came  another,  and  yet  another,  till 
one  of  the  committee  by  an  infuriated  look,  suc- 
ceeded in  arresting  the  voting  process,  on  the 
eve  of  being  made.  He  rose  in  his  place  and 
swang  about  both  arms  as  freely  as  though  they 
were  tied  to  the  shoulders  by  a  thong.  One  or 
two  evidently  tried  to  stop  him,  but  ineffectual- 
ly, as  he  began  to  stamp,  and  finally  took  up  an 
ink-stand.  It  was  not  thrown  at  the  chair,  as 
Mrs.  Fox  momentarily  expected ;  still,  by  his  ve- 
hement manner  against  the  apparent  determina- 
tion of  the  committee,  he  fairly  carried  the 
point ;  for,  rather  than  prolong  a  discussion, 
the  names  of  two  of  the  best  citizens  of  Boston 
were  expunged, — a  sacrifice  to  the  caprice  of 
one  who  has  neither  talent  or  character,  but  the 
reputation  of  being  a  noisy  meddler.  ♦'  This 
individual,"  said  Mrs.  Fox,  **  whose  face  is  fa- 
miliar to  me  now,  having  since  recognized  him 
in  the  streets,   and  sought  out  both  his  name 


82  PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE. 

and  place,  never  was  admitted  into  the  society 
of  well-bred  people.  He  was  conscious  that  he 
had  no  claims  upon  them,  and  never  obtruded 
where,  both  by  habit  and  feeling,  he  would 
have  felt  no  companionship  ;  yet,  in  this  polit- 
ical relationship,  all  his  acquired  prejudices 
against  individuals  superior  to  himself,  were 
suffered  to  pass  unrebuked,  because  it  was  con- 
sidered expedient  to  compromise,  that  is,  hu- 
mor his  dislikes,  that  others  might  be  accom- 
modated in  turn."  In  this  manner  a  list  of  rep- 
resentatives is  made  out  for  the  dear  people, — 
a  mere  machine,  with  hands,  to  drop  votes  into 
a  ballot-box. 

Having  scrutinized  one  of  the  belligerent  par- 
ties in  popular  political  array,  she  called  in  up- 
on an  assembly  of  Van  Burenites,  a  small  body, 
but  extravagantly  excited.  The  room  was  suf- 
focatingly full  of  ardent  patriots.  Seeing  was 
an  unsatisfactory  gratification, — and  she  regret- 
ted that  Magnetism  had  not  done  for  the  ear 
what  it  had  for  the  eye.  None  of  the  party  ap- 
peared to  be  in  pain,  though  their  visages  were 
occasionally  shockingly  distorted.  This  could 
not  be  accounted  for  by  any  common  rules  of 
judging.  Matters  were  conducted  much  as  they 
were  in   the  other  conclave,  with  this  exception, 


PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE.  83 

— when  the  president  had  gone  through  a  sin- 
gularly significant  pantomime,  seemingly  well 
understood,  anjd  appreciated  too,  by  those  in 
front  of  the  desk,  (for  they  frowned  simultane- 
ously,) he  held  up  a  broad  sheet,  inscribed  with  a 
host  of  names.  For  a  while,  there  was  an  ap- 
parent stillness  ;  at  least,  no  one  moved  a  limb, 
and  it  was  therefore  supposed  the  whole  ticket 
was  read  aloud.  By  and  by,  up  went  ail  hands. 
This  was  an  acceptance  by  acclamation.  No 
erasures,  no  index  fingers,  no  speeches  indi- 
cated dissatisfaction, — the  whole,  unbroken  and 
unmutilated,  met  their  entire  approbation.  At 
this  point  of  the  exhibition,  Mrs.  Fox  withdrew 
her  attention  and  left  them,  as  she  entered,  in 
spirit,  unknown  and  unseen.  She  said  to  me, 
afterwards,  that  she  came  to  the  conclusion, 
from  the  unanimity  of  the  gentlemen  at  this  cau- 
cus, that  they  only  wanted  numbers  at  the  poles, 
to  carry  any  measure  they  chose,  however  Uto- 
pian or  radical  in  its  tendency, 

Once,  and  but  once,  Mrs.  Fox  indulged  her- 
self with  an  interior  view  of  the  White  House, 
at  Washington.  There  sat  a  little  bald-pated 
man  at  a  writing-table,  quite  alone,  reading  in  a 
venerable  old  book.  He  neither  appeared  un- 
happy, or  discovered,  by  any  muscle  of  the  face. 


84         PEEPS  AT  GREAT  PEOPLE. 

that  the  mind  was  particularly  joyful.  The 
hour  was  late, — fires  were  out,  servants  had  re- 
tired, and  everything  bespoke  oi'der  and  quiet- 
ness: studious,  without  bustle  ;  thoughtful,  be- 
cause the  author  evidently  gave  activity  to  his 
mind  ;  he  continued  in  one  unchanged  position 
till  Mrs.  Fox  shrunk  from  the  apartment  with  a 
deep  sense  of  having  done  a  ruder  act  than  she 
cared  to  be  guilty  of  "  If  that  was  the  President 
of  the  United  States,"  she  jocosely  remarked, 
*'  he  cares  much  less  about  the  political  aspect  of 
the  times,  than  any  person  within  the  pale  of  the 
General  Government." 

With  considerable  hesitation,  she  consented 
to  call  on  the  Post-Master-General.  He  seemed 
not  at  all  conscious  of  the  presence  of  any  per- 
son in  the  snug  niche  in  which  he  was  writing. 
He  would  screw  and  twist  himself  into  all  imag- 
inable facial  contortions,  showing  that  his  mind 
was  in  precisely  the  same  uncomfortable  state. 
When  a  few  sentences  were  finished,  by  erasures, 
crosses,  and  numerous  interlineations,  easing 
back  for  the  favorable  assistance  of  the  lamp,  he 
read  the  composition  to  himself,  and  then  bowed 
himself  to  the  labor  again  of  parturiating  anoth- 
er sentiment.  Over  the  top  of  the  sheet  was  a 
coarse  superscription,  thus  : — ''  For  the  Globe.^' 


PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE.  85 

Mrs.  Fox  had  read  of  the  Globe,  and  Mr. 
Blair^  Printer  of  Congress,  &c.,  but  had  never 
seen  either.  The  Past-Master's  composition 
induced  her  to  go  a  little  farther.  She  did  so, 
and  made  the  editor  a  regular  visitation.  In  an 
apartment  adjoining  the  principal  press-room  of 
the  Globe  office,  sat  a  man  before  an  expiring 
fire,  partially  enveloped  in  newspapers,  smoking 
and  reading,  as  though  he  fully  enjoyed  both. 
Occasionally  he  laid  down  the  cigar,  to  cut  out  a 
line, — having  then  lying  on  the  table  a  dozen 
strips  thus  selected,  cut  and  dried  for  the  com- 
positor. After  waiting  considerably  longer  than 
she  considered  it  proper, — not  being  at  any  time 
able  to  divest  herself  of  the  idea  that  she  was  as 
visible  to  others  as  they  were  to  her,  and  feel- 
ing but  poorly  compensated  for  the  trip  to  Wash- 
ington, the  capital  was  abandoned  altogether. 
She  expressed  herself  heartily  cured  of  all  po- 
litical biases,  either  one  way  or  the  other, — be- 
ing satisfied,  from  personal  observation,  that  the 
men  whom  party  favor  has  elevated  to  the  pin- 
nacles of  fame,  by  giving  them  all  that  the  re- 
sources of  a  nation  have  to  bestow,  viz.  wealth, 
present  honor,  and  a  name  on  the  page  of  histo- 
ry, care  much  less  about  their  worshii)pers  than 
they  can  be  made  to  believe.     Though  she  saw 


86  PEEPS    AT    GREAT    PEOPLE. 

but  a  few  public  functionaries,  and  those  en- 
gaged, they  were  men  of  quiet  deportment,  unob- 
trusive, for  they  were  entirely  aJone  ;  and  she 
came  away  impressed  with  the  idea,  that  not 
one  of  them  cared  a  straw  for  those  who  have 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  battle  to  make  them  men 
of  historical  renown.* 

*  Since  the  above  was  written,  Mrs.  Fox  could  not  for- 
bear taking  a  look  down  State  Street.  Though  Mr.  Fox 
had  nothing  at  stake  in  the  Commonwealth  Bank,  she 
knew  that  others  had,  and  her  discoveries,  five  days  before 
the  bursting  of  the  bubble,  were  truly  exciting.  Moral 
honesty  was  there,  personified,  and  the  directors,  to  a  man, 
fed  sparingly,  for  more  than  a  week,  well  knowing  that 
dieting  was  necessary  for  men  in  whom  lurked  the  seeds 
of  pecuniary  dissolution.  A  further  examination  will  be 
had,  and  the  public  may  rely  upon  a  post-mortem  examin- 
ation of  each  individual,  directly,  who  has  figured  as  an 
automaton  in  the  hands  of  fraudulent  public  functionaries 
in  the  precincts  of  the  White  House. 

"  Beg,  that  thou  muy'st  have  leave  to  hang  thyself: 
And  yet,  thy  wealth  being  forfeit  to  the  State, 
Thou  hast  not  left  the  value  of  a  cord ; 
Therefore,  thou  must  be  hanged  at  the  State's  charge. 

Merchant  of  Venics. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS. 


Hours  were  occasionally  devoted  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  things  in  those  profound  labyrinths 
of  the  earth,  where  no  combinations  of  human 
ingenuity  can  display  them  ;  but  I  am  admon- 
ished, by  the  voluminousness  to  which  this  me- 
moir tends,  to  forego  the  relation  of  many  stir- 
ring displays  of  Mrs.  Fox's  splendid  gift  of 
clairvoyance,  to  chronicle  the  wonders  of  those 
distant  worlds  in  the  far  heavens,  which  have 
wheeled  through  the  unsurveyed  regions  of  the 
sky,  in  their  appropriate  orbits,  where  the  same 
controlling  power  that  bid  the  restless  ocean  to 
limit  the  action  of  its  proud  waves,  has  kept 
them  in  their  prescribed  routes,  since  that  event- 
ful period  when  they  were  first  launched  into 
the  boundless  regions  of  space. 

One  pleasant  afternoon,  business  having  been 


0»  WOxXDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 

perfectly  arranged,  that  there  might  be  no  un- 
necessary interruption,  —  Madam,  said  I,  it 
would  oblige  me  if  you  would  inspect  the  moon. 
The  proposition  was  quite  acceptable.  She  had 
herself  often  had  it  in  contemplation  to  try  the 
entire  strength  of  her  vision,  to  points  beyond 
those  to  which  it  had  heretofore  been  exerted. 

Perhaps  thirty  minutes  elapsed  in  getting  in 
readiness  for  observation,  and  full  fifteen  more 
before  the  moon  was  recognized.  The  reason 
of  this  was,  that  hundreds  of  asteroids,  or  small 
opaque  bodies  were  continually  flitting  before 
her  eyes,  greatly  impeding  the  view.  By  and 
by  she  fastened  upon  it,  a  huge  dark  world. 
Mountains  and  alternate  vallies,  as  described  by 
astronomers,  were  the  first  displays  on  its  gib- 
bous surface.  She  was  then  requested  to  exam- 
ine the  side  which,  being  always  turned  from 
the  earth,  never  has  been  seen,  even  in  outline, 
by  the  best  telescopes.  That  portion,  therefore, 
is  terra  incognita.  No  glasses  can  reach  it  ;  but 
she  could  penetrate  its  very  centre,  and  come 
out  on  the  opposite  point. 

Instantly,  as  it  were,  she  exclaimed,  *'  I  see  a 
long  lake,  on  the  margin  of  which  are  the  queer- 
est animals  imaginable.  They  neither  resem- 
ble horses  or  men,   yet  they  have  four  legs ;  the 


WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS.  89 

hind  ones  being  hooted,  but  the  forennost  have 
claws,  long  and  slender."  I  urged  upon  her  the 
importance  of  marking  every  particular  in  the 
external  organization,  which  I  am  bound  to  be- 
lieve she  did  with  much  truth  and  discretion. 
In  order  to  make  me  comprehend  their  structure, 
a  sketch  was  made  on  the  spot,  corresponding 
with  their  exact  outline  in  every  respect,  which 
her  skill  in  drawing  enabled  her  to  produce  with 
considerable  facility. 

The  fore  legs,  or  arms,  were  a  third  longer, 
according  to  the  picture,  than  the  others,  and 
were  covered,  as  was  the  whole  body,  with  bright 
green  feathers.  Each  claw  had  just  three  fingers, 
terminated  by  a  hooked  nail,  a  foot  in  length. 
The  body  bore  a  little  resemblance  to  that  of  an 
ostrich,  so  that  when  one  of  them  stood  erect, 
as  many  of  them  did  on  their  hind  feet,  the  legs 
appeared  to  be  articulated  to  the  middle  of 
the  abdomen.  The  lower  portion  of  the  belly, 
therefore,  hung  down  like  an  inverted  one,  be- 
tween the  thighs.  This  was  further  eked  out 
into  a  short  tail^  tufted  with  a  silky  kind  of 
hair.  In  an  upright  position,  the  tail  came 
within  three  feet  of  the  ground.  This  position 
was  obviously  an  uncomfortable  one,  as  the  tip  of 
the  claws,  first  one  side  and  then  the  other,  were 
8 


90  WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS, 

frequently  dropt  to  the  plane  of  the  feet,  to  main- 
tain a  perpendicular.  From  the  union  of  the 
arms  at  the  top  of  the  chest,  a  neck,  full  twelve 
feet  long,  shot  out,  not  more  than  four  inches  in 
diameter,  fringed  with  the  same  beautiful  green 
hair  on  the  inferior  side,  like  a  flowing  mane,  dis- 
coverable on  the  tail.  Nothing  could  be  more 
striking  than  the  configuration  of  the  head, 
bearing  some  slight  resemblance  to  an  ele- 
phant's ;  instead  of  a  proboscis,  on  each  side, 
where  ears  are  located  on  terrestrial  animals, 
two  lonor,  slender,  flexible  tubes  took  their  origin. 
They  were  moved  about  with  the  most  perfect 
freedom,  in  all  directions,  and  through  them 
they  probably  breathed.  A  mouth  was  no  where 
detected,  on  or  about  the  cranium  ;  but  a  valvu- 
lar opening  at  the  root  of  the  neck,  into  which  an 
odd  species  of  crab  was  introduced,  unquestion- 
ably fulfilled  the  offices  of  a  mouth.  While  some 
of  these  monsters  were  wading  in  an  erect  pos- 
ture, dragging  the  bottom  with  their  wide-spread- 
ing claws,  others  sat  sunning  themselves  on  the 
bank,  rubbing  themselves  with  handfuls  of  leaves, 
or  searching  each  other's  feathers  for  vermin. 
They  appeared  social  in  character,  though  rath- 
er irritable.  In  actual  bulk,  they  exceeded  a 
moose.  No  climate,  apparently,  could  be  finer, 
the  air  seeming  to  be  mild  and  agreeable. 


WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS.       91 

All  the  shrubbery  about  the  lake  was  strange- 
ly stinted,  though  of  a  lively  green;  even  the 
rocks,  as  well  as  the  soil,  were  extremely  green.* 
Perhaps  two  miles  from  that  ever-to-be-remem- 
bered aquatic  spot,  a  cluster  of  rude  huts  rose  to 
view,  confined  to  the  brow  of  a  mountain  so  vast- 
ly high  that  no  attempt  was  ever  made,  at  a  sub- 
sequent hour  of  leisure,  to  measure  its  altitude. 
The  huts  were  shaped  much  like  inverted  bas- 
kets, the  doors  being  low,  hardly  four  feet  high, 
yet  Mrs.  Fox  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  peeping 
directly  into  a  number  of  them.  Neither  fire  or 
smoke  were  discernible  any  where  on  the  moon, 

*  Mrs.  Fox  differs  but  a  liille,  in  her  description  of  lu- 
nar scenery,  from  Miss  Brackett,  who  avers  that  she  has 
been  there  twice.  Miss  Brackett,  in  some  respects,  was 
more  fortunate  in  her  observations  than  our  Boston  friend, 
as  she  certainly  saw  savage  men,  and  once  caught  them 
eating  out  of  a  wooden  bowl,  with  their  bare  hands  Now 
Mrs.  Fox  was  satisfied  of  the  existence  of  an  atmosphere 
in  the  moon ;  whereas,  Miss  Brackett  had  great  diiticulties 
to  overcome  on  arriving  in  its  neighborhood,  on  account 
of  not  having  a  physical  organization  for  existing  without 
air.  After  this  fact  was  ascertained,  she  invariably  held 
her  breath  all  the  time.  Mrs.  Fox  had  no  such  vexations, 
because  the  axis  of  vision  was  only  elongated,  and  the 
spirit  remained  at  home.  Miss  Brackett,  on  the  other 
hand,  merely  left  her  body  behind,  while  the  soul  drifted 
ofl'  in  personse; 


92  WONDERS   OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 

which  confirms  her  in  the  opinion  that  no  use 
whatever  is  made  of  that  element,  there,  even 
by  those  beings  possessing  the  most  intelligence. 
Within  the  huts,  the  young  of  the  animals  or 
men,  whichever  they  may  be  hereafter  denomi- 
nated, were  sleeping  on  piles  of  lunar  vegetables. 
Hither  and  thither,  troops  of  this  second  order  of 
animated  figures  were  loitering  about  the  settle- 
ment. None  of  them  exceeded  the  height  of  a 
yard-stick.  All  were  perfectly  naked,  though 
profusely  ornamented  with  evergreens  entwined 
around  their  limbs.  Although  they  had  but  two 
arms  and  two  legs,  growing  from  nearly  the 
same  point  each  side  of  the  abdomen,  from  the 
usual  place  of  the  navel,  a  fifth  limb  had  its  ori- 
gin, eight  feet  long.  In  appearance  it  was  of 
bone,  but  made  up  of  a  series  of  distinct  articula- 
tions, over  which  they  exercised  a  complete  volun- 
tary control.  When  not  in  use,  it  was  rolled  up  out 
of  the  way,  in  a  compact  manner,  like  the  main- 
spring of  a  watch.  The  only  possible  use  Mrs. 
Fox  could  discover  of  this  extraordinary  piece  of 
vital  mechanism,  was  this.  The  creature  would 
project  the  end  till  it  touched  the  ground,  when, 
suddenly  throwing  itself  into  a  horizontal  posi- 
tion, keep  straightening  the  instrument,  joint  by 
joint,    till   the    body  was   fearfully  balanced  on 


WONDERS   OF    OTHER    WORLDS.  93 

the  very  top  of  a  slender  pole,  as  it  were.  This 
done,  the  individual  commenced  whirling  on  its 
axis  with  inconceivable  velocity,  hours  together. 
She  saw,  on  several  occasions,  hundreds  of  them 
all  amusino;  themselves  tocrether  in  front  of  the 
village  of  huts,  in  this  singular  manner.  Anoth- 
er move  was  made,  and  she  swept  the  landscape 
over  hills  and  dales,  looking  with  intense  inter- 
est on  those  unexplored  lunar  fields.  Quadru- 
peds were  quite  common,  though  not  large. 
Generally,  they  were  analogous  to  the  feline 
races  of  our  earth,  but  varying  in  this  essential 
particular;  they  are  all  of  the  same  bright  green 
by  which  the  semi-bipeds  were  characterized. 
Their  paws,  in  all  she  saw,  were  disproportion- 
ably  large  and  long,  and,  moreover,  they  were, 
as  a  race,  distinguished  by  appendices  to  the 
head,  somewhat  like  miniature  probosces.  The 
mechanical  advantages  of  those  flexible  tubes 
were  of  infinite  value  in  holding  on  at  the 
abrupt  sides  of  the  mountains,  their  natural 
abodes,  about  which  they  habitually  roamed. 
Birds  with  four  eyes  are  common  in  the  moon. 
Their  heads,  and  the  shape  is  uniform  in  all  the 
specimens  of  lunar  ornithology,  were  perfectly 
round,  and  seemed  too  ponderous  to  be  supported 
with  ease  at  the  extremity  of  their  long,  slender 
8* 


94        WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS. 

necks.  While  at  rest,  they  stood  erect,  as  pen- 
guins do, — looking  towards  all  points  of  the  com- 
pass, without  at  all  changing  the  position  of 
either  head  or  body.  Mrs.  Fox  once  counted 
thirty-seven  birds  all  on  the  wing  at  once,  coining 
down  from  a  mountain.  Some  of  them  were  of 
the  dimensions  of  wild  geese,  whilst  others  in 
the  same  flock  extended  their  enormous  wings 
over  forty  feet. 

Serpents  of  monstrous  dimensions  were  al- 
ways plenty  in  all  the  vallies, — covered,  too, 
entirely  with  green  feathers.  This  is  an  anom- 
aly which  no  philosopher,  no,  not  even  the 
most  ingenious,  has  succeeded  in  explaining 
upon  satisfactory  principles,  why  all  the  lunar 
beings  of  the  inferior  orders  should  be  clothed 
in  green  feathers.  When  those  terrific  snakes 
were  running,  frequent  and  sudden  stops  were 
made,  as  though  they  were  alarmed  by  a  noise. 

Then  slowly  raising  their  blood-red  heads, 
full  thirty  feet  in  the  air,  they  gazed  round  a 
while,  and  then  resumed  their  rapid  progress. 
Mrs.  Fox  assured  me  that  the  skeleton  seen 
under  the  white  house  in  Hartford,  was  not  more 
offensively  horrible  than  the  green  serpents  of 
the  moon.  While  gazing  intently  upon  one,  as  it 
came  winding  down  the  rugged  sides  of  a  moun- 


A  Lu77ar  Ao  CO  motive. 


WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS.       95 

lain,  parti:illy  in  sight  one  moment,  then  con- 
cefiled  the  next  by  the  dark  shadows  of  over- 
hanging rocks,  or  by  the  rocks  themselves,  it 
came  rushing  into  view,  with  five  new  animals, 
different  from  any  she  had  then  seen,  mounted 
on  its  back.  In  truth,  they  were  riding,  and  a 
fleet  movement  it  was  too,  for  they  rarely  run  at 
a  less  rate  than  the  cars  on  tlie  Worcester  rail- 
road.* As  the  serpent  neared  the  plain,  the 
peculiarities  of  the  bodily  shape  of  the  volti- 
geurs  were  distinctly  considered.  Having  dis- 
mounted, |the  obedient  serpent  vermiculated 
wherever  it  chose,  which  renders  it  certain  that 
the  race   has  become  subservient   to  the   wants 


*  Mrs.  Fox  has  permitted  me  to  introduce  a  note  here, 
to  correct  what  would  otherwise  not  have  expressed  her 
ideas  in  the  text.  When  the  figure  or  comparison  was  made 
of  the  relative  velocity  of  the  lunar  serpents  to  rail-road 
speed,  she  was  supposing  that  the  Worcester  road  was 
distinguished  for  its  rapidity;  but  has  the  mortification,  on 
inquiry,  to  learn  that  the  corporation  have  abandoned 
steam  power  altogether,  and  now  employ  a  large  variety 
of  snails,  called  the  Carrackfurgus  breed,  to  drag  passen- 
ger between  Boston  and  Worcester — fare  $2,  which  in 
humble  imitation  of  the  Mede  and  Persian  code,  is  never 
to  be  changed,  blow  high  or  low : — a  fig  for  hard  times ; — 
let  the  people  slay  at  home  if  they  can't  afford  the  regular 
price. 


96  WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 

and  necessities  of  the  inhabitants,  who  have 
domesticated  them  for  personal  service. 

The  men,  for  so  Mrs.  Fox  felt  constrained  to 
call  them,  were  of  the  common  stature  of  the 
native  Bangorians.  They  were  offensively 
naked,  with  the  single  exception  of  a  mantle 
suspended  from  the  neck,  which  resembled  the 
bark  of  a  tree.  Their  legs  were  remarkably- 
short,  and  terminated  by  claws.  Their  arms 
were  full  of  joints,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
umbilical  apparatus  in  those  she  first  saw  at 
the  lake,  and,  at  their  extremities,  were  quite 
broad,  long-fingered  hands. 

One  of  them,  after  a  variety  of  raanoeuverings, 
set  a  tri-cornered  dish  on  the  ground,  out  of 
which  they  gluttonously  fed  themselves  with  the 
proboscis.  When  the  meal  was  finished,  the 
prehensile  mouth  was  drawn  within  the  head. 
Females  could  not  be  identified  from  males,  nor 
were  any  young  ones  observed  ;  the  group  was 
therefore  considered  to  be  constituted  wholly  of 
adults. 

Another  section  of  the  lunar  surface,  judged 
to  be  six  hundred  miles  from  the  habitation  of 
the  feathered  serpents,  was  brought  into  ocular 
view.  Mrs.  Fox  embraced,  in  the  field  of  her 
telesopic  vision,   about  eight    hundred  square 


WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS.  97 

mountains,  indented,  at  their  summits,  in  the 
form  of  craters; — but  in  lieu  offire  being  vomit- 
ed from  their  towering  peaks,  a  column  of 
moulten  liquid  kept  heaving  and  boiling  over 
the  brims,  and  then  trickled  down  their  gibbous 
sides  to  the  profound  abyss  below.  All  the 
rivers  in  the  vicinity  of  these  mountains  were 
probably  filled  with  heated  water. 

It  would  not  have  occurred  to  Mrs.  Fox  that 
such  was  the  fact,  had  she  not  fortunately  been 
favored  with  a  novel  exhibition,  confirmatory  of 
this  theory.  While  watching  a  body  of  scoriae, 
earth  and  roots  bound  .together  in  a  confused 
cake,  as  it  floated  down  the  current  through  the 
province  of  JMontani,  (so  christened  on  account  of 
the  general  aspect  of  the  country)  one  of  the  cat- 
like animals  heretofore  described,  came  leaping 
down  the  rocky  sides  of  a  terribly  steep  elevation, 
pursued  by  a  phalanx  of  beasts  altogether  new, 
differing  most  singularly  from  any  others  brought 
before  her.  As  the  poor  frightened  cat  reached 
the  bank,  it  sprang  with  prodigious  muscular 
agility  into  the  midst  of  the  stream,  with  the  in- 
tention, doubtless,  of  landing  on  the  floating 
mass, — but,  missing  it — souse  she  went,  entirely 
under,  and  though  submerged  scarcely  four 
seconds,  when  she  came   to  the  surface,  every 


98  WONDERS   OF    OTHER   WORLDS. 

vestage  of  skin  had  been  stripped  or  scalded 
from  the  body.  All  the  bare  cords  and  sinews 
were  exposed,  even  to  their  origin  and  insertion 
on  the  bones.  With  the  fore  paws  resting  on 
the  edge  of  the  rolling  island  a  moment  only, 
away  the  miserably  creature  fell  again,  and 
never  afterwards  came  into  view. 

No  mortal  ever  beheld  such  unearthly  figures 
before,  as  were  those  in  pursuit  of  the  moon-cat. 
They  were  exceedingly  like  toads,  only  alto- 
gether superior  to  those  harmless  reptiles  in 
size — for  they  exceeded  nine  feet  in  length,  by 
five  in  breadth  across  the  shoulders.  Besides, 
they  had  long  tails  curled  over  upon  the  back, 
armed  with  three  spurs  at  the  end.  They  pro- 
jected themselves  by  leaps,  with  the  hind  legs, 
from  seven  to  ten  rods  at  each  successive  spring, 
which  gave  them  manifest  advantages  over  other 
quadrupeds  in  point  of  rapid  progression.  Good 
evidence  was  made  of  their  carnivorous  pro- 
pensity, as  Mrs.Fox  saw  one  of  them,  in  apparent 
rage,  grasp  the  head  of  a  companion,  which 
was  severed  from  the  body  in  a  twinkling,  and 
afterwards  leisurely  eaten, — showing  the  canibal 
disposition  of  the  race  ;  others  sprang  upon  the 
body,  tearing  it  into  shreds,  which  was  devoured 
with  ravenous  despatch.     More  than  half  of  this 


WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 


99 


great  troop  of  moon-toads  gave  off  from  the  sur- 
face of  their  heads  a  dense  exhalation,  like 
tobacco  smoke.  It  curled  and  twined  above 
them,  like  halos  round  the  winter  stars. 

A  characteristic  of  animated  nature  in  the 
moon,  is  facial  gravity.  All  the  animals  pre- 
sent the  expression  of  deep  solemnity  or  sober- 
ness. No  playfulness  of  disposition  seems  to  be 
manifested  on  any  occasion  ;  but  a  melancholy 
sort  of  sedateness,  even  when  stimulated  by  the 
chase,  or  the  presence  of  society,  marks  all 
their  movements.* 

Near  by  the  grand  toad  locality,  a  new  scene 
broke  in  upon  her  excited  vision,  indescribably 
thrillinxr.  It  was  a  magnificent  fountain  in  the 
middle  of  an  extensive  plain,  throwing  up  a  jet 

*  It  was  suggested  that  they  were  probably  living  iu 
fear  of  being  deposited  in  the  cabinet  of  some  Natural 
History  Society,  those  modern  Golgothas,  in  which  there 
are  more  specimens  than  science.  It  must  be  a  melan- 
choly prospect  to  reflecting  animals, — such  as  monkeys 
and  dromedaries,  that  if  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  any 
one  of  the  legion  of  honorary  members,  there  will  be  no 
peace  to  their  manes. — There  is  one  gentleman  in  North 
America  who  has  the  distinguished  honor  of  not  being  a 
member  of  any  society, — all  the  rest  of  the  population, 
however,  able  to  pay  assessments,  are  enrolled  somewhere, 
—and  each  one  is  learned  in  proportion  to  his  money. 


100      WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS. 

of  liquid  fire,  like  molten  brass,  full  three  miles 
in  perpendicular  height.  When  it  had  reached 
its  destined  altitude,  the  summit  exceeded  in 
brilliancy  an  auroral  illumination  on  terra  firma, 
or  a  shower  of  meteors  on  the  thirteenth  of 
November.*  Whatever  the  fluid  mass  might  be 
— it  foamed  and  sparkled  in  gorgeous  splendor, — 
and  when  uptost  by  the  resistless  force  below,  it 
dashed  back  again  upon  the  margin  of  the 
mighty  chasm  through  which  it  came,  in  con- 
vulsive pulsations.  Even  at  the  vast  distance  at 
which  Mrs.  Fox  was  seated  from  this  pyrotechy 
of  the  moon,  the  scintillations  of  dazzling  light 
were  quite  too  concentrated  for  her  eyes. 

Within  twelve  miles,  judging  by  comparison, 
of  the  burning  fountain,  a  populous  settlement 
rose  into  view.     In  the  first  place,  there  were 

*  On  the  13th  of  November,  annually,  over  the  city  of 
New  Haven,  the  stars  of  the  firmament  play  most  singular 
antics ;  the  entertainment  usually  closes  at  daylight  in  the 
morning,  by  the  spontaneous  fall  of  several  hundred  fire- 
brands. This  phenomenon  is  significantly  called  Olm- 
steacfs  Benefit  Night,  because  he  feels  at  liberty  to  re- 
deluge  the  learned  Vv-ith  a  milk  and  water  theory  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science.  The  first  idea  of  the 
double  cylinder  stove,  invented  by  the  professor  to  warm 
houses  without  heal,  was  first  suggested  by  watching  ihe ' 
zenith  on  the  13ih. 


WONDERS  OF  OTHER  WORLDS.      101 

just  twenty-four  fabrics,  in  color  like  granite, 
shaded  with  a  changeable  blue,  built  up  against 
rocks,  which  projected  from  the  sides  and  base 
of  the  mountains.*  Some  were  twenty  feet — 
some  a  little  less,  and  one  exceeded  the  height  of 
the  Park  Street  steeple.  Into  this  unique  taber- 
nacle, or  it  is  possible  tiiat  it  may  be  a  public 
building  devoted  to  secular  business,  a  long  pro- 
cession was  entering,  at  the  instant  of  being 
seen, — each  individual  of  which,  bearing  upon 
the  head,  a  great  green  serpent,  coiled  into  the 
smallest  convenient  compass. 

Every  person  in  the  procession  had  a  proboscis, 
clearly  discoverable,  but  the  shape  of  the  head 
could  not  be  ascertained,  on  account  of  the 
burden  upon  the  shoulders,  which  concealed  it. 
Their  legs  were  similar  to  those  of  the  camel, 
protected  at  the  knees  by  thick  projecting  culicu- 
lar  pads.     Thus,  in  general  form  of  organization, 

*  On  perusing  Incidents  of  Travels,by  a  pert  young  law- 
yer, of  New  York,  the  reader  will  be  satisfied,  as  far  as 
the  weight  of  evidence  is  concerned,  that  the  description 
of  the  excavated  city  of  Petra,  the  capital  of  Idumea, — 
where  Esau  took  up  his  abode,  after  separating  from  his 
brother  Jacob,  was  copied  verbatim  from  Mrs.  Fox's  notes 
on  the  architecture  of  the  moon.  How  little  confidence  is 
to  be  placed  in  travellers — why  I  would  liardly  believe 
Willis  the  dandy  poet, — 'pon  his  honor. 
9 


102 


WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 


they  were  bona-fide  men,  with  the  exception  of 
short  tails  stuck  through  the  seats  of  their  kilts, 
which  were  briskly  moved  as  though  they  were 
brushing  away  a  cloud  of  insects. 

Being  perfectly  exhausted  with  these  anoma- 
lous sights,  so  much  at  variance  with  all  to  which 
she  had  before  been  accustomed,  Mrs.  Fox 
expressed  an  unwillingness  to  pursue  the  inquiry 
any  longer.  Reluctantly,  to  be  sure,  I  was 
compelled  to  acquiesce  in  the  determination, 
anxious  as  I  was  to  know  more,  by  the  only 
certain  means  the  world  has  known,  of  that 
nearest  planetary  body,  about  which  philosophers 
have  speculated  since  the  commencement  of  the 
history  of  man.  Aided  as  they  have  been  for 
the  last  seventy  years,  by  glasses  of  immense 
magnifying  power,  astronomers  have  after  all 
presented  us  with  only  a  bare  outline  of  its 
geological  features.  No  progress  can  be  made 
in  minute  surveys  by  telescopes.  To  Mrs.  Fox, 
then,  is  the  age  indebted  for  the  clearest,  most 
probable  and  circumstantial  accounts  of  its 
natural  productions  and  physical  appearances. 

More  than  a  fortnight  passed  away  before  the 
lady  could  divest  her  mind  of  the  images  of 
those  beings ;  they  seemed  to  haunt  her  in  her 
slumbers,  and  occupy  her  thoughts  through  the 


WONDERS    OF   OTHER    WORLDS. 


103 


day.  There  is  an  inconceivable  feeling  in 
realizing,  that  of  the  countless  billions  of  human 
beings  who  have  been  upon  the  stage  since  the 
creation,  she  alone  has  been  the  only  solitary 
individual  permitted  to  witness  the  actual  con- 
dition of  the  moon. 

However,  after  exercising  as  much  patience, 
as  a  person  could  in  the  excited  state  to  which 
these  discoveries  had  raised  me,  at  the  end  of  two 
weeks  Mr.  Fox  called  at  my  lodgings  one  sunny 
morning,  to  announce  the  agreeable  intelligence 
that  his  lady  felt  sufficiently  recruited  to  recom- 
mence a  tour  in  the  heavens.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  acceptable ;  and  the  same  after- 
noon, with  but  little  preparation  for  the  long  pro- 
posed journey,  Mrs.  Fox  ascended  to  the  planet 
Saturn. 

Were  I  to  be  minute  in  chronicling  every 
exclamation  that  dropped  from  her  lips,  or  re- 
peat her  thousands  of  surprises  on  reaching  the 
scene  of  new  wonders,  which  this  jaunt  opened 
to  her  wondering  gaze,  tliere  would  be  scarcely 
room  for  any  thing  else. 

Being  heartily  and  devotedly  intent  on  record- 
ing simple  facts,  which  I  feel  a  presentiment  are 
to  be  guiding  stars  in  after  times  in  the  sublime 
study  of  astrcgiomy,— and  withal,  sensible  of  the 


104  WONDERS    OF    OTHER    WORLDS. 

impetus  that  will  necessarily  be  given  to  the 
noblest  of  the  exact  sciences,  it  is  liardly  worth 
while  to  apologize  for  keeping  to  the  letter  of 
the  developments.  In  the  appendix  of  a  forth- 
coming volume,  on  which  I  am  engaged,  with 
reference  to  reconciling  these  discoveries  to  the 
known  principles  of  optics,  embracing  numerous 
notes  and  practical  illustrations  for  a  college  text- 
book,* it  will  be  my  purpose  to  introduce 
various  collateral  proofs  and  observations  that 
could  not  with  propriety  be  interwoven  here, 
without  swelling  the  present  memoir  to  incon- 
venient dimensions. 

*  I  hke  to  keep  promising,  like  a  pet  bank,  that  some- 
thing is  forthcoming.  This  is  a  mode  of  keeping  the 
world  on  the  qui  vive.  A  general  plan  of  my  proposed 
literary  undertakings  for  the  ensuing  spring,  bear  a  strik- 
ing-resemblance to  Mr.  Graham's  lectures  on  the  laws  of 
life.  Call  on  ihree  hundred  and  four  of  his  famished  fol- 
lowers in  the  city  of  Boston,  for  particulars,  or  Fanny 
Wright  Durismont's  disciples,  which  are  as  plenty  as 
quack  doctors,  ten  to  a  street. 

"  There  is  enough  written  upon  this  earth, 
To  stir  a  mutiny  in  the  mildest  thought, 
And  arm  the  minds  of  infants  to  exclaim," — 

Titus  Andronicus. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


EXTRAORDINARY     SIGHTS. 


Never  were  astronomers  more  greatly  deceiv- 
ed, than  in  all  they  have  told  us  of  the  planet 
Saturn.  In  the  first  place,  its  magnitude  is  but 
about  one-eighth  of  what  those  retailers  of  the 
marvellous  have  unwarrantably  represented. 
An  ocular  deception  is  something  of  an  apology 
for  them  ;  but,  with  their  high  pretensions  to 
accuracy,  they  ought  to  have  detected  that  pecu- 
liar law  of  light  which  gives  an  apparent  increase 
to  a  body  at  certain  distances.  When  parallel 
rays  leave  a  luminous  object  in  celestial  space, 
at  ten  trillions  of  leagues  from  the  sun,  the  true 
magnitude  of  that  body  from  which  the  rays  are 
reflected,  are  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance.* 

*  Those  only,  possessing  the  true  phrenological  bumpifi- 
cations,  will  fathom  these  propositions.    Education  does 


106  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 

Probably  this  is  the  first  public  effort  to  cor- 
rect the  blunders  of  those  nomades  of  the  upper 
air.  Again,  they  describe  Saturn  as  being  sur- 
rounded or  rather  embraced  by  two  vast  rings, 
one  within  the  other,  with  a  space  intervening 
of  some  thousands  of  miles  ;  and,  lastly,  give  a 
climax  to  their  romantic  description,  by  declar- 
ing that  he  is  attended,  in  his  endless  circuit,  by 
seven  obedient  moons. 

For  the  honor  of  science,  and  for  the  honor 
too  of  these  United  States,  I  hope  the  press  will 
lend  its  energetic  aid  in  sweeping  away  the  mist 
of  ignorance  which  has  thus  far  enveloped  this 
sublime  study,  by  circulating  far  and  wide  the 
revelations  of  this  chapter.  But,  were  the  frater- 
nity of  type-setters  to  withhold  their  important 
co-operation,  the  light  of  reason,  the  doctrine  of 
analogies,  and,  above  all,  the  free  spirit  of  com- 
mon sense,  ere  long,  must  totally  overthrow  the 

nothing  towards  instilling  ideas ;  there  must  be  a  cerebral 
organization,  sui  generis,  to  be  an  astronomer.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts, lamentable  as  it  is,  there  are  bat  two  classes 
of  individuals  who  can  profit  by  the  exposition  of  this  fun- , 
damental  law  of  light,  viz.  the  editors  of  Almanacs  and 
the  gentlemen  conducting  the  celebrated  trigonometrical 
survey  under  the  auspices  of  the  legislature.  To  the  lu- 
cid report  of  the  latter,  airthe  people  are  referred,  who  pay 
taxes. 


EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS.  107 

monstrous  absurdities  of  the  present  boasted  tri- 
umphs of  modern  astronomy. 

Mrs.  Fox  watched  those  great  horizontal  hoops 
which  encircle  Saturn,  many  tedious  hours  before 
discovering  their  true  composition  and  their  util- 
ity in  the  economy  of  that  planet.  At  length 
the  point  was  gained  ;  for  there  was  an  unfold- 
ing, as  it  were,  of  the  mystery  of  their  structure 
and  relationship  to  their  primary.  Instead  of 
two  rings,  there  is  but  one,  and  that  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  a  collection  of  water,  so  exact- 
ly balanced  in  space,  that,  having  once  been  set 
in  motion  and  partaken  of  the  rotary  movement 
of  Saturn,  whose  diurnal  and  forward  velocity 
is  prodigious,  inconceivably  rapid,  full  a  million 
of  miles  a  day,  that  the  aqueous  collection  can 
never  become  erratic  or  wander  from  its  pre. 
scribed  orbit.  The  momentum  it  has  acquired 
maintains  its  integrity. 

When  the  solar  heat  acts  upon  one  half  of  it, 
as  it  does,  fifteen  years  at  a  time,  alternately, 
first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  an  ira, 
mensiiy  of  it  is  evaporated.  As  the  vapor  ex- 
pands till  it  comes  within  the  attractive  influence 
of  the  planet,  whose  atmosphere  is  cold  as  Green- 
land, it  is  instantly  condensed,  and  falls  on  por- 
tions   of  Saturn  iii  copious  rains.     Periodical 


103 


EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 


rains,  therefore,  are  established  there,  as  in  equa- 
torial latitudes  on  our  earth.  In  the  West  In- 
dies, for  example,  the  rainy  season  lasts  about 
three  months  ;  but  there,  fifteen  complete  years. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  this  water  exhales 
from  the  deluged  soil,  vegetation,  &c.,  the  incli- 
nation of  the  sun  is  such  in  regard  to  the  ring, 
that  it  becomes  extremely  cold  on  that  half  of 
the  planet,  even  several  degrees  below  the  ordi- 
nary temperattire  indicated  by  a  thermometer  in 
theStreights  of  Sunday.  Thus,  the  vapor,  as  it  is 
raised  by  solar  might,  rushes  off  till  it  meets  the 
distant  atmosphere,  when  it  again  becomes  con- 
densed and  mingles  with  its  primitive  element 
in  the  ring.  Thus,  there  is  a  ceaseless  action 
continually  going  on  between  Saturn  and  his 
watery  belt ;  the  former  being  fertilized  and  in- 
vigorated by  the  water,  which  is  returned  home 
when  the  object  of  its  mission  has  been  accom- 
plished. 

What  an  admirable  arrangement  is  this  ! 
Could  puny  man,  the  little  thing  of  a  day,  with 
all  his  boasted  intelligence,  contrive  mechanism 
like  this  ?  Who  can  contemplate  these  glorious 
displays,  this  harmonious  circle  of  action,  pro- 
ducing, in  a  far  distant  world,  all  the  benefits  de- 
rived  from  the  regular  succession  of  day  and 


EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS.  109 

night,  although  of  fifteen  years  uninterrupted 
duration,  and  not  exclaim  that  he  is  of  no  ac- 
count in  the  undefined  universe, — an  invisible 
moat,  floating  on  the  ocean  of  time  1  * 

By  repeated  observations,  Mrs.  Fox  ascertain- 
ed, for  a  moral  certainty,  that  the  seven  satellites 
so  constantly  adverted  to  in  connection  with 
Saturn,  are  pure  balls  of  fire,  playing  about  their 
primary,  underthe  restraints  imposed  upon  them 
by  well-known  laws  of  attraction  and  repulsion. 
Without  those  hot  bodies  and  the  device  of  their 
harmonious  arrangement,  another  of  those  glori- 

*  To  admire,  one  should  learn  the  art.  Miss  Martineau 
is  cordially  referred  to,  as  an  admirable  example  to  follow 
in  disciplining  oneself  that  way.  Dr.  Paley,  Mr,  Dick, 
and  the  Messrs.  Abbots,  are  tame  authors,  and  by  no  means 
worth  the  attention  of  those  who  love  to  exalt  themselves 
and  refine  the  heart  by  easy  contemplations.  Miss  Mar- 
tineau has  the  true  fire  of  genius,  the  poetry  of  conception. 
Had  she  been  a  man  instead  of  an  old  maid,  there  is  no 
calculating  what  her  destiny  would  have  been  on  her  late 
visit  to  this  infantile  coimtry.  As  it  was,  she  was  not  in- 
sensible to  the  flatteries  of  sjxophants  in  surplice,  who 
hoped  for  immortality  in  her  diary.  Her  ingratitude  to 
that  select  few  who  bellowed  into  her  capacious  ears  all 
the  slander  of  the  continent,  must  feel  happily  recom- 
pensed for  the  just  tribute  of  respect  expressed  by  her  for 
the  government,  institutions,  manners  and  customs  of  the 
United  States. 


110  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS- 

ous  displays  referred  to  by  the  literati,  the  globe 
of  Saturn  would  be  wholly  unfit  for  the  residence 
of  organized  beings.  The  transcendant  heat 
constantly  radiated  from  those  brilliant  moons, 
as  they  are  universally  though  improperly  called, 
is  sufficient  to  keep  the  solid  earth  warmed,  and 
maintain  the  vitality  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life.  It  seems  to  be  mainly  by  the  absorption 
of  calorific  rays  that  this  beneficial  life-preserving 
,efl:ect  is  produced.  The  sun  has  no  agency 
whatever  in  maintaining  the  requisite  degree  of 
temperature,  being  at  a  distance  altogether  too 
great  to  excercise  even  a  remote  influence. 
Eclipses  of  the  moons  of  Saturn,  in  the  language 
of  the  old  philosophers,  or  rather  as  we  are 
taught  by  the  present  discoveries,  involves 
nothing  that  is  mysterious  in  their  phenomena; 
indeed,  to  give  credit  where  it  is  due,  the  books 
of  science  are  measurably  correct  in  the  declara- 
tion that  the  rays  from  the  sun  are  occasionally 
interrupted  in  the  course  which  they  have  a  ten- 
dency to  run,  by  Saturn  himself,  and  this  gives 
the  appearance  of  an  eclipse  of  one  or  more  of 
the  fire-balls. 

When  it  happens  that  any  one  of  the  seven 
receives  the  direct,  though  necessarily  feeble 
light,  from  the  centre  of  the  solar  system,  the 


EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS.  Ill 

appearance  is  vivid.  Friction,  or  the  resistance 
of  invisible  matter  in  the  regions  through  which 
their  several  orbits  pass,  keeps  up  the  maximum 
heat,  which  is  always  the  same. 

This  fluid  or  matter,  whatever  it  may  be,  is 
both  elastic,  invisible  and  impenetrable,  contrib- 
uting always  the  elements  of  fire.  On  the  sur- 
face of  Saturn  there  are  no  stupendous  moun- 
tains, no  deep  ravines,  as  in  the  cheerless  moon. 
Nature  in  the  fair  climate  of  Saturn,  assumes 
her  most  captivating  aspect,  and,  from  all  that 
can  be  ascertained,  it  is  altogether  the  happiest 
residence  in  which  mortals  could  be  placed  in 
the  nebulcB  to  which  the  seven  worlds  of  the  so- 
lar system  belongs.  Nine  great  cities,  magnifi- 
cent beyond  description,  the  quiet  habitations  of 
intelligent  beings,  were  all  minutely  examined 
at  one  sitting,  being  within  the  circumference  of 
a  circle  embraced  by  the  eye.  They  occupied  an 
apparent  area  of  one  hundred  miles,  guarded  on 
their  suburban  boundaries  by  tremendous  great 
hollow  spheres,  rolling  with  unearthly  speed  just 
outside  the  gates,  laden  with  Anacks.  These 
balls  varied  considerably  in  size,  some  being  a 
thousand  feet  in  diameter,  and  others  falling  be- 
low two  hundred — bearing  to  each  other  the  re- 
lative  proportions  of  large  and  small  vessels,  en- 
tering in  or  sailing  out  of  port. 


112 


EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS. 


These  curious  vehicles  rolled  amazingly  rapid- 
ly, not  only  round  individual  cities,  but  also  from 
one  to  the  other,  with  the  facility  of  well-managed 
coaches  on  a  high  way.  It  was  obvious,  by  the 
uniform  movements  of  the  larger  class  which 
continually  ran  around  the  extreme  boundaries 
of  a  city,  that  they  were  some  way  connected 
with  a  vigilant  police  regulation.* 

In  the  axes  of  the  balls,  (for  so  I  continue  to 
designate  them,  because  I  am  an  admirer  of 
simplicity  of  language  in  descriptive  narrative,) 
there  are  extremely  large  round  openings,  so 
that,  in  passing,  Mrs.  Fox  looked  clear  through 
to  the  opposite  circular  window.  Within,  on  a 
level  with  the  under  side  of  the  polar  axis  win- 
dow, a  sort  of  a  flooring  was  rigged,  suspended 

*  Rapid  driving,  in  New  York  and  Boston,  indicates  a 
disposition  to  copy  their  neighbors  inSalurn  ;  but  it  shows, 
at  the  same  time,  a  most  miserable  lack  of  energy  in  cer- 
tain officers,  who  permit  reckless  Jehus  to  crack  the  bones 
of  women  and  children,  every  other  day  in  the  year,  as 
though  they  were  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  tutelar  deity  of 
the  city.  Of  all  municipal  laws,  let  those  which  have  been 
enacted  to  preserve  the  citizens,  be  rigidly  enforced.  We 
know  not,  having  never  inquired,  but  all  those  old-fash- 
ioned wholesome  restraints  upon  furious  driving  in  our 
thronged  streets  have  been  repealed,  and  the  omnibusses, 
are  put  in  commission  to  cheapen  provisions  by  killing  off 
the  inhabitants. 


EXTPwAOKDlNARY  SIGHTS.  113 

by  some  inj^enious  contrivance,  so  that  it  re- 
inained  still  and  level,  notwithstanding  the  mo- 
tion of  the  outside  shell.  Sliding  doors  were 
opened  and  closed,  just  as  the  current  of  air  and 
other  circumstances  were  agreeable  or  disagree- 
able. There,  with  a  delightful  prospect  before 
them,  groups  of  travellers  were  seen  crowding 
to  the  window  to  enjoy  the  beautiful  scenery. 
From  the  piles  of  bales,  boxes,  trunks,  &c.  ob- 
served in  the  back  ground,  beyond  the  passen- 
gers, it  was  evident  they  were  strangers  from  a 
distant  province. 

Mrs.  Fox  noticed  that  way-passengers  were 
continually  alighting  from  the  window,  even 
burdened  by  baggnge,  without  experiencing  ap- 
parent inconvenience,  although  the  vehicle  nev- 
er stopped  for  any  one  to  make  an  exit.  What 
amazed  her  very  much,  was  the  fact  that  no  one 
seemed  to  suffer  the  least  inconvenience  from 
leaping,  even  from  the  highest  balls,  as  with  us 
in  stepping  from  a  carriage,  when  under  way. 
A  different  kind  of  structure,  therefore,  a  higher 
degree  of  finish  in  the  mechanical  construction 
of  the  locomotive  apparatus,  must  be  accorded 
to  the  favored  Saturnians. 

Puzzling  as  it  is  to  explain  how  or  upon  what 
principle  these  hollow  spheres  are  kept  in  motion, 
10 


114  EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS. 

I  shall  hazard  the  opinion  that  the  true  perpet' 
ual  motion,  so  long  sought  for  here,  has  there 
been  discovered,  and  applied  to  the  propulsion 
of  engines.  Outside  they  are  uniformly  smooth, 
and  nothing  appears,  not  even  a  screw  head,  to 
lead  to  a  knowledge  of  the  arrangementof  wheels 
or  pinions  within.* 

No  style  or  magnitude  of  architecture  known 
to  the  ancients,  will  compare  with  the  lofty  edi- 
fices on  the  face  of  Saturn.  Out  of  thousands 
of  private  dwellings,  not  one  single  house,  with 
the  exception  of  oui-houses,  was  less  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  in  height,  all  beautifully  propor- 
tioned, and  the  best  class  standing  within  eme- 

*  Mr,  Fox  suggested  that  the  mysterious  power  so  ad- 
vantageously applied  by  the  ingenious  Saturnians,  might 
be  eleciro-magnetism;  nor  can  he  be  diverted  from  the 
notion  that  Dr.  Page  and  Mr.  Davenport  got  their  first 
hint  for  constructing  those  queer  models  at  the  Mechanics' 
Fair,  by  a  stealthy  peep  at  the  manuscript  of  this  book. 
The  doctor  being  a  Salem  man,  born  on  the  spot  where 
the  witches  were  tried,  it  is  possible,  barely  possible,  that 
he  obtained  his  knowledge  in  that  way.  As  for  Mr.  Da- 
venport, he  is  exculpated  from  all  participation  in  the 
matter.  His  model  is  enough  to  convince  the  most  stupid 
men  in  the  universe,  (I  mean  the  Joint  Stock  Company 
engaged  in  building  a  mammoth  Electro-Magnetic  loco- 
motive for  the  Haerlem  Rail-road)  it  was  never  copied  j 
it  is  every  inch  his  own  invention. 


EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS.  115 

raid  enclosures  of  surpassing  richness.  From 
uhatever  point  they  were  viewed,  even  at  differ- 
ent liours,  when  tlie  reflected  light  might  be  sup- 
posed to  modifv,  tliey  alwnys  had  a  (hizzling 
metallic  lustre,  not  unhkc  burnished  gold  when 
held  up  to  a  blazing  sun  in  a  summer  day. 

They  are  without  transparent  windows  or 
hinged  doors  ;  the  necessity  of  the  former  was 
never  manifested  by  inclemency  of  the  weather, 
and  with  respect  to  the  latter,  a  much  prettier 
plan  is  pursued  there,  of  having  them  slide,  like 
those  between  communicating  parlors.  Chim- 
neys were  never  observed,  which  led  Mrs.  Fox 
to  suspect  that,  like  the  Grahamites,  the  people 
subsist  wholly  upon  vegetable  productions,  un- 
cooked.*    Most  of  them  have  verandahs  towards 

*  Never  were  simpletons  more  ungenerously  and  libel- 
lously  treated,  than  the  persecuted  Grahamites.  Misrep- 
resentation and  glaring  falsehoods  have  been  in  vogue 
against  them  long  enough.  So  far  from  living  exclusive- 
ly on  vegetables,  as  wickedly  promulgated,  ihey  are  the 
most  ravenous  meal-eaters  on  the  globe,  always  excepting 

,  who  requires  a  stream  of  Madeira  at  the  expense 

of  the  Corporation,  to  work  away  dull  care.  Why,  that 
persecuted  saint,— that  meek,  that  heavenly-minded  suf- 
ferer in  the  cause  of  long  life,  whose  innate  modesty  so 
seals  his  lips  that  "  he  never  said  a  foolish  word,"  the  great 
inventor  of  the  humbug  himself,  always  dines  on  roast 
beef  when  out  of  the  Avay  of  his  silly,  moonshine  followers. 


116  EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS. 

the  streets,  arranged  in  terraces,  one  above  the 
other,  to  the  highest  story.  This  gives  a  fine 
effect,  and  might  be  imitated  here,  particularly 
when  favored  with  a  southern  aspect,  to  good 
advantage.* 

In  all  great  thoroughfares  of  the  cities,  the 
broadways,  the  doors  were  open,  and  IMrs.  Fox 
made  very  exact  sketches  of  what  she  saw.  Of 
this,  however,  the  particulars  will  be  given  in 
the  second  volume,  which  is  appropriated  to  the 
consideration  of  practical  agriculture,  ornament- 
al gardening,  and  the  predominant  fashions  of 
dress  and  furniture,  in  vogue  with  the  Satur- 
nians. 

As  a  general  rule,  in  the  exact  centre  of  every 
street,  which  were  paved  with  blocks  of  wood, 
like  the  specimen  patch  in  New- York,  on  which 
the  mayor's  children  play,  there  is  a  raised  plat- 
form, resembling  a  bowling-alley,   perhaps   six 

*  Although  the  thought  has  been  suggested,  I  have  no 
reason  for  beUeving  that  the  galleried  house  between  At- 
kinson and  Federal  streets,  in  which  the  Berry  Street  Ran- 
gers, a  mighty  band  of  ferocious  fellows  are  supposed 
to  hold  their  midnight  orgies,  is  an  imitation  of  a  Satur- 
nian  gentleman's  house.  The  Berry  Street  architectural 
wonders,  reflecting  odoriferous  honor  upon  the  name  of 
the  contriver,  is  entirely  original,  and  among  the  curiosi- 
ties of  Boston. 


EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS.  117 

hundred  feet  in  width,  over  which  the  locomo- 
tive balls  of  the  third  order,  such  as  are  permit- 
ted within  the  city,  are  forever  rolling  on  in 
monotonous  grandeur.  No  other  vehicles  were 
ever  seen  there  by  Mrs.  Fox,  although  much 
time  was  given  to  the  investigation. 

Neither  external  mechanical  aid  or  living 
power  was  any  where  applied  on  the  outside, 
which  amounts  to  a  confirmation  of  the  opinion, 
that  the  perpetual  motion  has  certainly  been 
discovered  there.  All  travelling  in  Saturn  is 
performed  in  this  unique  manner. 

The  streets  were  filled  with  multitudes,  pass- 
ing and  repassing  each  other,  as  in  our  large 
towns, — and  the  balls,  teaming  with  those  bent 
on  business,  and  those,  for  aught  we  know,  on 
fleeting  pleasure,  were  shooting  by  each  other 
and  through  streets  and  lanes  and  the  byways  of 
the  country,  as  though  conscious  of  their 
strength.  As  far  as  any  of  the  magnificent 
avenues  were  examined,  the  balls  were  seen 
going  with  difTerent  velocities,  till  lost  in  the 
maze  of  perspective.  All  communications  be- 
tween cities  and  distant  provinces  is  probably 
maintained  through  their  agency.  Were  a 
spectator  raised  in  a  balloon  eight  thousatid  feet 
directly  over  Boston,  and  in  looking  down  should 
10* 


118  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 

discover  spherical  bodies,  of  twenty,  thirty  and 
forty  feet  in  diameter,  rolling  through  the  streets 
by  an  invisible  impulse,  and  should  notice  the 
Salem  turnpike,  the  road  to  Cambridge,  and 
other  principal  avenues  leading  to  the  town, 
studded  with  those  bodies,  laden  with  passengers, 
both  entering  and  departing  from  the  city, — he 
would  have  something  of  a  correct  idea  of  the 
mode  of  intercourse  in  the  planet  Saturn. 

Men  were  infinitely  numerous  there, — in  all 
respects  made  as  we  are  made,  but  magnificent- 
ly developed :  they  all  averaged  twenty-five  feet 
in  height.  Nothing  is  more  astonishing  than 
man,  as  he  shows  himself  in  Saturn  ; — truly,  he 
looks  like  the  lord  of  the  soil.  Clothing  is  not 
required  to  any  burdensome  extent.  The  only 
fabric  worn,  is  a  kind  of  sparkling  armor,  of 
the  richest  workmanship.  The  legs,  arms  and 
body  were  enclosed,  apparently  for  eff'ect,  not  as 
a  necessary  condition  on  account  of  the  climate. 
Great  majesty  is  depicted  in  their  countenances; 
and  the  proportions  of  their  limbs,  the  exact 
symmetry  of  their  figures,  together  with  the  grand 
display  of  their  comforts,  industry,  contentment 
and  happiness,  raised  the  curiosity  of  Mrs.  Fox 
to  the^iiighest  degree  of  admiration. 

Mrs.   Fox   became    satisfactorily  convinced 


EXTRAORDINARV:    SIGHTS.  119 

that  this  was  the  abode  of  a  happy  race,  where 
neither  envy,  guile,  backbiting  or  slander  had  a 
foothold. 

The  Saturnian  cities  are  of  prodigious  mag- 
nitude and  surpassing  magnificence,  in  every 
respect.  Philadelphia,  with  all  its  internal 
excellencies,  in  comparison  with  one  of  those 
in  a  distant  world,  is  but  a  mere  moat  by  the 
side  of  a  mountain.  Streets  do  not  intersect 
each  other  at  right  angles,  but  describe  con- 
centric circles, — one  within  the  other ; — hence 
the  exterior  one  of  all  is  truly  prodigiously  long. 
From  the  centres  of  the  nine  metropolitan  cities, 
particularly  noticed,  where  stands  the  strangest 
public  buildings  ever  devised,  narrow  pathways 
intersect  the  streets. 

More  than  two  hours  were  devoted  to  a  sur- 
vey of  the  exterior  of  the  citadel,  if  such  is  its 
purpose,  in  city  a,  so  marked  in  the  lithographic 
plans  of  the  natural  and  artificial  divisions  of 
Saturn.  In  the  first  place,  its  magnitude  is 
terrific,  being  on  the  same  grand  architectural 
scale  which  distinguishes  even  private  houses  of 
the  common  citizens.  It  was  computed  to  be, 
from  the  threshold  of  the  frontdoor,  to  the  eves 
— one  half  a  mile. — Cupolas,  spires,  domes  or 
minarets  are  unknown,  or,  if  they  are,  it  is  cer- 


120  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 

tain  they  are  not  fashionable.  Its  grand  figure 
is  something  between  an  octagon,  a  circle,  a 
cube  and  a  circle, — therefore  difficult  to  explain.* 

On  the  top  of  the  walls,  (for  it  is  without  a 
roof,  like  the  towers  of  gothic  churches,)  singular 
animals  are  chained  down  by  massive  rings. 
They  conducted  as  though  the  point  of  am- 
bition was  to  get  at  each  other,  but  the  chains 
were  too  short  to  allow  of  contact. 

Some  of  those  mural  ornaments,  if  such  was 
the  purpose  in  confining  them  at  that  giddy 
height,  differed  in  every  possible  respect  from 
the  inferior  animals  of  the  moon.     Their  bodies 

*  The  South  Cov^e  Hotel,  now  building  opposite  the 
Worcester  rail-road  depot,  is  more  like  that  in  the  text, 
that  is,  indescribable^  than  any  other  in  America.  Wisely 
the  name  of  the  architect  has  been  kept  out  of  sight, 
having  been  forced  by  a  pile,  driven  when  the  foundation 
was  laid,  beyond  the  prying  reach  of  vulgar  posterity. 
The  rumor  that  the  company  by  whom  it  is  erected  have 
taken  out  a  patent  right,  is  firmly  contradicted.  Neither 
is  it  believed  that  the  company  intend  to  be  entombed  in 
the  court  which  the  hotel  surrounds.  No  proposition  of 
the  kind  was  ever  brought  forward  to  be  sanctioned  by 
tlte  hawk-eye  committee,  nor  by  Mr.  *****  *j  wJ^q  concocts, 
pro  bono  publico.  When  the  street  in  front  of  the  hotel 
is  made  a  trifle  narrower,  the  beauty  of  this  structure, 
apparently'-  a  great  gloomy  rat-trap,  even  worse  than  the 
new  granite  court-house,  will  be  properly  appreciated. 


EXTRAORDIxNARY    SIGHTS.  121 

were  just  three  square,  like  a  file,  and  apparent- 
ly as  hard,  by  reason  of  formidable  black  scales. 
These  triangular  frames  varied  in  length  from 
one  to  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  feet  in 
length,  terminated  by  a  head  at  each  extremity. 
On  the  under  side,  the  ridge  of  the  back  being 
one  angle,  were  hundreds  of  legs,  after  the  man- 
ner of  centipedes,  those  in  the  middle  being 
much  the  longest,  and  each  one  expanded  into  a 
broad  palmated  foot,  analogous  to  a  frog's. 

As  might  be  supposed,  the  centre  of  motion 
was  at  the  insertion  of  the  central  limbs.  Bal- 
anced on  these,  the  body  each  way  was  occa- 
sionally violently  raised  into  the  air,  held  down 
at  that  point  by  the  chain,  while  their  awfully 
constructed  jaws  gnashed  together  with  horrific 
force.  Being  without  teeth,  they  had  a  compen- 
satioij  in  the  copious  secretion  of  a  bright  yellow 
venom,  which  was  spirted  from  their  yawning 
mouths  like  lava  from  a  volcano. 

Another  animal,  belonging  to  a  difterent 
species,  also  triangular,  and  provided  with  two 
heads,  as  was  repeatedly  noticed  to  be  the 
characteristic  of  all  the  Saturnian  genera,  had, 
beside  wings,  one  solitary  leg,  projecting  from 
the  middle  of  its  abdomen.  It  possessed  the 
elastic  property  of  a  spiral  spring.     Leaping  as 


122  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 

far  as  its  ponderous  cliain  would  permit,  the 
whole  weight  of  the  body  fell  on  the  end  of  this 
iinib,  which  was  thus  forcibly  compressed  till  the 
superincumbent  weii^ht  nearly  touched  the  wall, 
when  a  reaction  took  place — the  leg  elongating 
to  its  utmost  extent,  lifting  the  body  vertically 
as  long  as  the  elastic  property  was  in  exercise, 
but  just  before  being  wholly  expended,  another 
leap  followed.  Whether  all  this  was  the  effect 
of  rage  or  an  evidence  of  playfulness,  could  not 
be  determined. 

Despairing  of  picturing  by  a  written  descrip- 
tion their  appearance,  as  described  by  Mrs.  Fox, 
I  must  forego  any  further  account  of  these  non- 
descripts, because  they  differ  so  singularly  from 
those  familiar  to  us  in  the  confined  limits  of 
civilization,  that  my  veracity  might  be  called  m 
question  were  further  details  given  of  ^ their 
organization. 

I  am  fully  aware  of  the  scepticism  that  will  be 
expressed  by  the  best  informed  people  in  the  com- 
munity, with  regard  to  these  revelations.  We 
have  become  accustomed  to  a  certain  style  of 
animal  mechanics,  conducive  to  a  certain  circle 
of  motions,  adapted  to  the  physical  well-being 
of  each  species  ;  hence,  to  surprise  the  reader  by 
deviations  from  the  familiar  standard  of  construe- 


EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 


123 


tion,  as  he  views  each  class,  would  only  excite 
suspicion  that  good  faith  and  honesty  had 
nothing  to  do  with  this  memoir.  We  are  not 
prepared,  in  fact,  for  these  sudden  surprisals; 
the  very  nature  therefore  of  Mrs.  Fox's  inquiries, 
because  they  are  altogether  in  advance  of  the 
age,  will  be  slow  in  carrying  conviction  to  the 
minds  of  those  who  never  think  for  themselves. 
As  before  remarked,  the  building  being  with- 
out a  covering,  gave  Mrs.  Fox  an  opportunity 
of  looking  directly  from  above  into  its  numerous 
apartments.  In  some  of  them  were  travel- 
ling balls,  laid  up  in  ordinary  ;  in  others,  martial 
tropliies,  coats  of  mail,  regal  jewels,  &lc.  Al- 
most an  army  of  females  were  caged  up  in  a 
suit  of  delightful  rooms.  Adjoining  them  was 
a  royal  saloon  containing  thirty-two  acres  on  the 
floor,  profusely  ornamented  with  glittering  stars 
fixed  to  the  walls,  sparkling  and  blazing  like  a 
series  of  noon-day  suns.  All  the  ladies  had 
heavy  diadems  upon  their  heads.  Fifty,  of  sur- 
passing dignity,  in  addition  to  crowns,  had 
golden  serpents  suspended  from  their  ears  and 
elbows.  Bracelets  of  burnished  gold  also  be- 
decked their  arms  and  ankles,  and  boquets  of 
flowers  vying  with  the  iridescent  glories  of  the 
rainbow,  confined  by  diamond  clasps,  were  seen 


124  EXTRAORDINARY    SIGHTS. 

upon  their  shoulders.  Neither  shoes  or  stock- 
ings, or  indeed  any  dress  covered  their  feet, 
unless  a  profusion  of  chased  rings  on  all  their 
toes,  comes  under  the  denomination  of  hosiery. 

About  their  persons  a  flowing  drapery,  care- 
lessly drawn  on,  yet  extremely  elegant  from  the 
negligence  with  which  it  was  worn,  constituted 
their  sole  covering.  Their  arms  were  bare  to 
the  shoulders,  and  so  were  the  legs  to  the  knees. 
Some  were  dancing,  some  playing  on  musical 
instruments,  and  many  more  engaged  in  games 
of  chance.  It  was  deeply  exciting  to  Mrs.  Fox 
to  witness  the  feat  of  jumping  the  rope,  one  of 
her  school-girl  pastimes,  which  seemed  to  be  as 
popular  in  Saturn  as  at  a  modern  gymnasium. 
No  females  on  our  globe  bear  the  least  sort  of 
proportion  to  them  ; — not  one  of  them  being  less 
than  twenty  feet  tall. 

To  clear  the  cord,  one  lady  jumped  so  high 
that  Mrs.  Fox  feared  all  her  bones  would  be 
fractured  on  striking  the  floor.  There  is  nothing, 
however,  very  surprising  in  this  stupendous  ex- 
ercise, with  a  rope  equalling  a  moderate  cable  : 
every  thing  is  in  that  proportion  in  Saturn. 

An  instrument  on  which  one  of  the  inmates 
of  this  gilded  room  played  twice  in  one  afternoon, 
while  Mrs.  Fox  was  gazing  in  upon  the  coterie, 
was  fashioned  somewhat  like  a  taraborine,   yet 


EXTRAORDINARY  SIGHTS.  125 

it  was  without  a  parchment  head.  Across  the 
hoop  were  stretclied  a  lot  of  stiff  parallel,  inelas- 
tic bars,  one  inch  in  diameter,  four  inches  apart, 
or  thereabout.  On  those  were  mptallic  balls, 
perforated  through  their  centres,  and  strung  on 
the  rods,  so  as  to  slide  freely  either  way. 

From  some  unaccountable  circumstance  which 
Mrs.  Fox  would  never  reveal,  I  have  totally  failed 
in  every  attempt  to  elicit  any  thing  further  on 
this  subject  of  Saturn.  Abruptly,  however,  as 
the  developments  have  been  brought  to  a  close, 
the  candid  inquirer  after  truth,  the  student  of 
nature  and  the  philosopher,  wmII  appreciate  the 
value  of  these  discoveries,  and  estimate  the  tran- 
scendant  advantages  accruing  to  science  from 
the  right  application  of  Animal  Magnetism  in 
the  hands  of  the  wise  and  learned.  It  is  my 
private  opinion,  that  Mrs.  Fox  was  shocked  by 
a  very  terrible  discovery  in  one  of  the  citadel 
saloons,  and  rather  than  recall  the  subject,  appa- 
rently so  dreadfully  disagreeable,  she  chooses  to 
remain  perfectly  silent.  The  public  may  rest 
assured  that  whenever  she  renews  the  narrative, 
if  not  too  voluminous  for  publication,  the  relation 
shall  appear  at  a  future  day.* 

♦  By  consulting  those  excellent  authorities,  Col.  Stone's 
Letter,  Durant's  Memoir  of  Silk-Worms,  Poyen's  History 
11 


CHAPTER  X. 


UNTHOUGHT    OF    MATTERS. 


By  an  infinitude  of  trigonometrical  calcula- 
tions, Jupiter,  the  mammoth  of  the  heavens, 
reputed  to  be  89,170  English  miles  in  diameter, 
important  errors  have  been  detected,  of  conse- 
quence to  science.  Now  his  distance  from  the 
earth  is  also  declared  to  be  490  millions  of  miles, 
and  has  a  revolution  on  his  own  axis,  making  a 
day  and  a  night,  in  precisely  nine  hours  and  fifty- 
six  minutes.  These  memoranda  will  prepare  the 
reader  for  duly  estimating  the  value  of  the  follow- 
ing astounding  discoveries. 

of  Animal  Magnetism  in  New-England,  and  Professor 
Wayland  on  the  Moral  Laws  of  Accmnulation,  some  in- 
sight may  be  gained  into  the  cause  of  the  freaks  and  fan- 
tasies of  somnambulists.  Very  satisfactory  reasonings 
mighi  be  collected  from  the  pages  of  the  Family  Magazine 
for  a  thousand  strange  matters.  The  Massachusetts  R— 
is  another,  and  the  Annuals  of  Education  is  another, 
and  the  publications  of  all  candid  abolitionists. 


UNTHOUGHT    OF    MATTERS.  127 

To  Animal  Magnetism,  the  noblest  and  last 
discovered  of  the  liberal  sciences,  is  intellectual 
man  indebted  for  all  that  he  knows  with  certain- 
ty of  other  worlds.  Without  the  provision  of  a 
somnambule,  to  this  hour,  doubt  and  obscurity- 
would  have  enveloped  the  mechanism  of  the  solar 
system.  Notwithstanding  the  learned  research- 
es of  La  Place,  that  which  has  called  forth  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  unnumbered  genera- 
tions, from  the  creation  of  Adam,  the  structure, 
order  and  internal  condition  of  the  planetary 
system,  is  now  brought  down  into  particulars,  and 
is  destined  to  become  an  ordinary  parlor  topic, 
divested  of  all  the  romance  and  false  coloring 
which  ignorance  invariably  attaches  to  what  is 
not  comprehended. 

How  singular  and  thrilling  must  have  been 
the  inward  sensations  of  that  favored  of  the  hu- 
man race,  Mrs.  Fox,  in  reaUzing  the  fact  that  of 
all  nations  and  tongues  under  heaven,  she  alone 
is  the  only  individual  who  has  been  indulged 
with  the  solitary,  yet  ennobling  satisfaction  of 
looking  through  all  space,  wherever  the  will  was 
directed,  and  yet  lives  to  be  conscious  of  it  all ; 
to  relate  minutia3,  and  to  be  grateful  for  the  high 
distinction  of  being  the  chosen  vessel  for  pronml- 
gating  these  revelations,  which  have  been  made 


128  UNTHOUGHT    OF    MATTERS. 

to  her  ecstatic  vision.  She  would  be  wanting  in 
honest  .pride,  were  she  insensible  of  the  glory 
that  will  henceforward  be  attached  to  her  name 
in  all  future  annals,  in  being  the  humble  instru- 
ment of  instructing  mankind  in  the  sublime  study 
of  the  universe.  Nor  does  the  weight  of  respon- 
sibility in  permitting  me  to  record  these  incalcu- 
lably important  discoveries,  operate  otherwise 
than  to  humble  her  to  the  dust  in  view  of  all  that 
she  has  seen. 

Jupiter  is  an  unfinished  planet ;  it  is  at  this 
moment  in  a  process  of  evolution,  to  become  ul- 
timately the  fit  .residence  of  animated  beings, 
none  having  yet  been  developed  there.  With 
the  same  scrupulous  exactness  of  observation 
which  has  characterized  all  Mrs.  Fox's  observa- 
tions, she  conceives  that  the  nucleus  of  Jupiter 
is  one  tremendous  central  fire,  enveloped  by  a 
sphere  of  water,  two  thousand,  three  hundred 
and  eleven  miles  in  thickness.  Volcanic  erup- 
tions are  frequently  taking  place  and  bursting 
through  a  dense  crust  intervening  between  the 
molten  mass  within,  and  the  water  without. 
This  crust  she  determined,  by  a  regularly  devised 
scale  of  admeasurement,  to  be  one  thousand, 
nine  hundred  and  two  feet  in  thickness.  She 
witnessed   repeated   outbreakings   through  this 


UNTHOUGHT  OF  MATTERS.        129 

shell,  as  though  a  mighty,  resistless  internal  force 
hove  onward  till  it  burst  through,  and  the  rent 
edges  being  raised  above  the  water,  there  re- 
mained like  the  ragged  edges  of  a  crater,  high 
and  dry  above  the  roaring  ocean.  From  the 
open  mouth  thus  formed,  flame,  smoke,  ignited 
rocks,  themselves  mighty  and  terrific  in  dimen- 
sions, were  whirled  above  the  surging  billows, 
and  when  they  fell,  the  waters  hissed  and  boiled 
and  foamed  in  awful  violence.  Ejected  lavas 
have  accumulated  in  spots  and  adhered  to  the 
steep  sides  of  these  nucleii  of  burning  mountains, 
increasing  the  lateral  diameter  and  strengthening 
the  walls  of  the  volcanic  tube  leading  into  the 
profound  abyss  below,  till  the  elements  of  con- 
tinents begin  to  show  themselves.  She  doubts 
not  that  these  disruptions  have  been  gradually 
going  on  under  the  sure  influence  of  certain 
physical  laws,  perhaps  for  millions  of  years,  and 
millions  more  may  be  required  to  separate  the 
water  into  distinct  seas.  On  a  central  fire,  then, 
does  the  whole  chain  of  physical  revolutions  de- 
pend for  raising  Jupiter  to  the  condition  of  other 
sections  of  the  solar  system.  These  grand  dis- 
plays have  for  their  object  to  prepare  it  for  the 
occupancy  of  organized  beings,  destined  in  the 
great  plan  of  creative  wisdom,  to  roam  over  its 
11* 


130        UNTHOUGHT  OF  MATTERS. 

widely  extended  surface  and  bask  in  its  future 
sunshine  of  blissful  prosperity. 

Those  meridian  belts  on  its  outer  surface,  by 
which  it  is  designated  from  the  fixed  stars,  are 
the  incipient  foundations  of  mountain  ranges, 
which  will  ultimately  become  much  more  strong- 
ly marked,  and  therefore  be  classed  among  the 
most  striking  points  of  reference  in  astronomical 
calculations. 

When  I  assert  that  animals  have  not  yet  been 
created  in  Jupiter,  I  speak  expressly  of  air- 
breathing  animals,  the  latest  always  in  the  order 
of  equivocal  generation  :  in  the  encircling  ocean 
there,  monsters  were  noticed  by  Mrs.  Fox,  of 
gigantic  proportions  and  unique  construction. 
They  unquestionably  hold  the  same  relationship 
to  the  changing  planet  that  the  extinct  sauri' 
ans  did,  that  once  held  the  entire  control  over 
our  earth,  before  the  higher  and  more  compli- 
cated orders  came  into  existence.  If  it  is  ques- 
tioned, what  I  now  assert,  that  ages  and  ages  of 
an  indefinite  duration,  before  man,  aquatic  mon- 
sters held  possession  of  this  earth,  I  beseech 
those  who  would  throw  obstacles  in  the  way,  or 
obscure  the  path  of  the  geologist,  to  remember 
that  the  skeletons  of  those  antideluvians,  those 
original   proprietors  of   this  fair   globe,  are  in 


UNTHOUGHT  OF  MATTERS.        131 

every  museum  of  distinction  in  Europe  and 
America. 

These  gigantic  lizards  were  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  feet  in  length  ;  the  phsiosaurus  and 
many  others,  now  denominated  fossil  remains, 
tell  their  own  story.  They  once  lived,  but  when, 
no  science  can  determine.  Their  speci-es  too 
was  propagated — for  more  than  one  specimen 
has  been  recovered.  As  they  are  detected  in 
every  climate  and  in  all  regions,  throughout  the 
continents  and  islands,  it  proves  how  universally 
they  were  dispersed  over  the  whole. 

We  have  a  fair  and  unquestionable  history  of 
six  thousands  years,  the  Mosaic  chronology — a 
period  in  which  man  has  exercised  his  high 
prerogative  of  being  the  lord  of  creation  ;  yet  in 
all  that  time,  no  animal  bearing  the  least  resem- 
blance to  the  frames  of  these  excavated  remains, 
has  any  where  been  discovered  ;  their  utter  ex- 
tinction, therefore,  is  firmly  established.  Once 
they  lived — but  in  what  age  1  They  were  all 
blotted  from  existence,  but  who  can  decide  the 
epoch  ? 


CHAPTER  XI. 


A   JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN. 


From  immemorial  time,  [men  of  all  ages  and 
in  all  countries  where  the  human  intellect  has  de- 
veloped its  energies,] — speculations  have  been 
advanced  on  the  probable  construction  and  real 
office  of  the  sun,  on  that  splendid  system  of 
worlds  by  which  it  is  surrounded,  without  gain- 
inor  that  certain  knowledore  which  can  alone  be 
satisfactory.  It  shines  as  it  did  on  the  eventful 
morning  of  its  creation,  six  thousand  years  ago, 
and  yet  philosophers  know  no  more  about  its 
organization  than  when  Joshua  commanded  it  to 
stand  still. 

True,  his  diameter  in  geographical  miles  has 
been  determined  to  be  883,000,  and  that  twenty- 
five  days,  fourteen  hours  and  eight  minutes  are 
occupied  in  turning  once  round  on  his  axis ;  but 
what  is  there  in  all  this  that  is  at  all  remarkable  ? 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  133 

We  are  a  people  delighting  in  particulars  ;  we 
cannot  rest  with  an  imperfect  disclosure,  or 
tolerate  a  half-told  tale.  Being  myself  under  the 
urging  influence  of  this  national  trait,  I  be- 
sought Mrs.  Fox  to  lend  her  aid  once  more,  to 
clear  up  a  mystery  in  the  heavens,  and  it  affords 
me  unfeigned  pleasure  to  declare,  that  in  every 
instance,  though  often  fatigued  and  prostrated 
through  the  shocks  which  her  extreme  sensibili- 
ty received  by  the  clear  views  she  had  of  unsus- 
pected sights,  in  this  and  other  worlds,  she 
seemed  always  in  readiness  to  make  her  trans- 
cendant  gift  of  clairvoyancy  subservient  to  the 
highest  purposes  of  cultivated  science. 

At  the  conclusion  of  so  many  experiments,  it 
required  considerable  preparation  to  reconnoitre 
the  central  point  from  whence  a  series  of  worlds 
got  their  impetus,  and  whose  momentum  is  regu- 
lated by  its  own  undivulged  agency.  When 
suitable  arrangements  had  been  completed,  I 
sat  by  the  side  of  Mrs.  Fox,  with  a  resolution  of 
recording  whatever  she  might  reveal,  being 
assured,  from  constant  watchfulness  over  her, 
that  imagination  never  swayed  her  judgment, 
nor  had  she  any  motive  for  making  false  repre- 
sentations. Implicit  confidence  may  be  placed 
in  every  assertion  emanating  from  her,    and   I 


134 


A   JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN. 


hold  myself  responsible  to  the  world  at  large  for 
the  fidelity  with  which  this  record  of  her  great 
discoveries  has  been  executed. 

On  arriving  in  spirit  *  within  nine  hundred 
and  seventy-five  miles  of  the  main  body  of  the 
great  Sol  himself,  so  judged  for  reasons  Mrs. 
Fox  did  not  at  the  moment  stop  to  explain,  she 
found  it  nearly  impossible  to  breathe.  After  re- 
peated attempts  to  pass  through  an  invisible 
medium  conjectured  to  be  the  atmosphere  of 
the  sun,  her  lungs  were  clogged  and  choked 
so  badly,  that  she  was  heartily  rejoiced  to  wend 
her  way  back  again  with  all  convenient  despatch. 
We  talked  over  this  unlooked-for  hindrance,  nor 
did  we,  or  those  with  whom  we  conversed,  com- 
prehend how  that  the  functions  of  the  body 
should  be  operated  upon  by  the  chemical  com- 
position of  the  atmosphere  of  a  distant  globe,  in 
the  absence  of  the  soul. 

Now,  I  lay  it  down  as  a  fundamental  position, 
that  the  spiritual  part  of  our  being,  the  rational, 

*  I  am  continually  falling  into  the  expressions  of  the 
Providence  people,  who  always  speak  of  their  travelling 
somnambulists  as  having  departed  in  spirit — the  body 
being  dead  to  sensations  till  its  return.  Now,  Mrs.  Fox 
was  frequently  in  doubt  whether  her  power  of  vision  ex- 
tended to  all  distances,  or  whether  her  soul  was  verily 
moving  by  an  act  of  volition. 


A   JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  135 

thinking,  incorporeal  soul,  always  leaves  the 
body  in  these  clairvoyant  expeditions,  and  yet 
Mrs.  Fox  maintains  the  contrary  opinion,  by 
assuring  me  that  the  rays  of  light  from  luminous 
objects,  however  distant,  traverse  to  the  eye ; 
so  that  it  is  merely  an  elongation  of  the  axis  of 
vision,  and  not,  as  I  suppose,  a  migration  of  the 
soul.  But,  waving  all  theories,  it  is  sufficient  to 
assure  the  reader  that  no  less  than  three  several 
trials  were  made  before  she  passed  through  the 
non-breathing  space,  and  reached  the  solid 
substance  of  the  fountain  of  light.* 

At  my  suggestion,  she  suspended  herself  mid- 
air, and  allowed  the  sun  to  roll  over  on  his 
diurnal  route,  that  she  might  the  more  advanta- 
geously inspect  the  surface  as  it  passed  onward 

*  A  wonderful  coiacideuce  this, — with  l\Iiss  Brackett's 
account  of  her  voyage  to  the  moon.  The  difficulty  of  in- 
flating the  lungs  came  very  near  driving  her  to  the  city 
of  Providence,  although  ample  preparations  had  been 
made  for  a  grand  journal.  Like  Mrs.  Fox,  she  ultimately 
succeeded,  and  the  particulars  have  been  often  related  by 
herself  to  those  stupid  asses  who  could  afford  leisure  to 
hear  the  recital.  But  this  was  nothing  to  being  sea-sick 
on  a  voyage  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  Certificates 
to  prove  that  she  actually  vomited  on  the  parlor  carpet, 
may  be  seen  in  the  next  edition  of  Col.  Stones  history  of 
Animal  Magnetism. 


136  A    JAUNT    TO   THE    SUN. 

under  her  feet.  Still,  she  averred  that  she  had 
not  left  Boston,  but  was  in  persona?,  in  her  own 
quiet  parlor.  Here  the  regular  investigation 
commenced. 

The  sun, — the  ever-shining  sun,  the  life- 
giving,  invigorating  luminary  of  a  beautiful 
combination  of  inhabited  and  partially  develop- 
ed spheres,  is  made  up,  apparently,  of  concentric 
lumina  of  transparent  matter,  like  the  crystalline 
lens  of  the  eye.  These  coats  are  nine  thousand 
miles  in  thickness,  the  innermost  one  embracing 
a  ball  of  luminous  substance  intensely  dazzling, 
defying  all  description,  and  equalling  in  bulk  four 
globes  the  size  of  our  earth.  Each  one  of  these 
strata  possesses  a  highly  reflecting  as  well  as 
refracting  property.  Outside,  or  rather  on  the 
sun's  surface,  there  is  a  deep  rich  soil,  as  fine  as 
levigated  gold  dust,  or  rather  an  impalpable 
powder,  having  a  specific  gravity  of  inconceiva- 
ble weight.  It  is  so  very  solid  that  the  smallest 
particle  which  could  possibly  be  collected  on  the 
extreme  point  of  a  fine  needle,  would  weigh 
about  four  tons.  Thus,  though  perfectly  adust, 
the  admirable  contrivance  of  its  having  great 
ponderosity,  always  keeps  the  soil  from  being 
blown  away,  a  circumstance  of  immense  im- 
portance to  the  Solarians,  should  it  by  accident 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  137 

ever  occur.  Now  this  impalpable  soil  is  equally 
as  transparent  as  the  main  body  of  the  planet. 
How  splendidly  glorious  is  all  this!  Matchless, 
aye,  overwhelming  are  these  magnificent  dis- 
plays in  the  far-spread  universe. 

But  with  this  unique  provision  for  reflecting 
and  refracting  light,  the  sun  does  not  originate 
a  single  ray.  Light  is  the  offspring  of  infinite 
Power,  whose  presence  cannot  be  witnessed  by 
man,  and  live ; — whose  laboratory  is  in  the 
secret  labyrinths  of  a  changeless  eternity; — but 
we  are  permitted  to  philosophize  on  the  eflfects, 
nay,  causes  and  effects,  without  knowing 
whether  we  are  right  or  wrong  in  those  abstract 
investigations,  which  are  of  no  utility,  even  were 
they  made  plain  to  a  child. 

*'  How  glorious  is  the  sun,"  might  all  its 
trillion  of  happy  intelligences  sing  in  elevated 
chorus'!  Surely,  it  is  the  Eldorado  of  the  poet's 
imagination.  It  is  the  region  where  the  soul  of 
him  who  was  designed  to  inhabit  it,  pours  out 
the  full  splendor  of  its  innate  power. 

But  I  will  restrain  myself  from  farther  ex- 
pressions of  delight  in  Mrs.  Fox's  glowing  ac- 
count of  the  blissfiil  surface  of  the  sun,  to  detail 
the  circumstances  connected  with  its  illumina- 
ting properties. 
12 


138  A    JAUNT    TO   THE   SUN. 

At  an  indeterminate  distance  from  the  body 
of  tiie  sun,  far  beyond  the  non-breathing  space, 
there  is  a  sphere  of  luminous  vapor,  something 
like  a  fog  in  a  bright  sunshine.  Thus  the  sun 
itself  is  balanced  in  the  centre  of  a  hollow 
ball  of  phosphorescent  haze.  What  this  is  we 
never  can  know,  for  we  have  no  means  of  con- 
ducting a  chemical  analysis.  This  is  light  itself, 
concentrated  ;  and  to  make  that  quantity  which 
will  enable  our  imperfect  optics  to  perceive,  it 
must  be  variously  diluted  by  passing  through 
millions  of  miles,  through  variously  composed 
atmospheres,  and  lastly  become  altered  by  the 
finely  organized  retina  with  which  a  benevolent 
Creator  has  condescended  to  bless  us. 

The  action  of  the  nucleus  of  the  sun,  on  this 
distant  cloud  of  light,  is  among  the  most  extraor- 
dinary phenomena  in  the  whole  range  of  nature. 
A  sort  of  boiling  commotion  takes  place  at  some 
point  of  this  condensed  light,  which  keeps  in- 
creasing till  it  bursts  with  the  fury  of  an  ocean 
wave  against  an  iron-bound  coast,  dashing  and 
rending  the  whole  mass  for  millions  of  miles  in 
extent,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  accompanied, 
it  is  presumable,  by  awful  detonations,  heavier 
than  any  artillery  in  the  earth's  aerial  domains. 
Then  another  disruption   will  follow  in  quick 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  139 

succession,  and  another,  and  another ; — some 
of  these  rents  exceeded  four  hundred  millions  of 
miles  in  length  by  one  hundred  thousand  in 
breadth.  The  vacuum  thus  instantly  formed  by 
the  convulsive  action,  leaves  a  long  black  cavity, 
which,  seen  from  this  earth,  is  called  a  black  spot 
on  the  sun.  When  there  is  an  universal  activity 
going  on  in  the  way  of  disruption,  a  chain  or  a 
series  of  black  belts  seem  to  pass  over  the  sun's 
face,  obscuring  his  fructifying  influence,  felt 
here  in  the  unproductiveness  of  the  season,  and 
in  the  cold,  hazy  atmosphere,  which  apparently 
chills  the  air,  and  stints  vegetation  as  it  rises 
from  the  mother  earth. 

Whatever  the  composition  of  the  sphere  of 
light  may  be,  I  know  not;  but  after  its  chaotic 
atoms  have  been  acted  upon  by  the  central 
diamond  of  the  sun,  rays  shoot  out  from  the  mass, 
and  in  the  process  of  adjustment  from  confusion 
to  order,  the  rupture  takes  place  and  a  percepti- 
ble light  is  evolved,  such  as  illuminates  an  object 
to  be  recognised  by  the  eye.  When  light,  there- 
fore, once  assumes  the  form  of  pencils  of  rays, 
the  highly  reflecting  property  of  the  whole  body 
of  the  sun  throws  it  with  an  impelling  force 
that  drives  it  through  an  indefinite  distance  ; — 
perhaps  they  would  move  in  a  right  line  forever 


140  A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN. 

and  ever,  were  they  not  at  any  time  intercepted 
by  the  interposition  of  opaque  bodies  floatin<^ 
through  the  dark  empire  of  eternity.  This  suf- 
ficiently explains  the  whole  matter  of  the  origin 
of  light.  I  now  intend  to  confine  myself  to  Mrs. 
Fox's  lucid  description  of  the  sun  as  a  habitable 
residence. 

It  has  before  been  remarked  that  the  soil  was 
as  perfectly  transparent  as  the  interior  of  its  body, 
out  of  which  grows  spontaneously  every  variety 
of  elegant  tree  and  flower  the  most  active  imagin- 
ation can  conceive  of,  spreading,  it  is  presumed, 
a  fragrance  as  exhilerating  and  delightful  through 
the  air,  as  the  olfactory  organs  of  the  inhabitants 
can  bear.  Fruits  of  all  hues,  from  the  golden 
yellowness  of  the  orange,  to  the  purple,  scarlet 
and  red,  the  violet  and  purple,  hang  in  luxuriant 
profusion  from  every  twig  and  bough  ;  a  new  crop 
springing  into  maturity  the  instant  a  stem  is 
disencumbered  of  its  weight.  All  that  could  in- 
vite the  appetite  or  satisfy  the  cravings  of  a 
gourmand,  of  a  vegetable  nature,  are  crowding 
into  view  wherever  the  observer  turns. 

A  plant  apparently  peculiar  to  the  sun,  as  it 
was  no  where  seen  in  the  other  planets,  yielded 
an  immense  crop  of  small  quadrupeds,  resembling 
pigs,  which  no  sooner  reached  the  full  period  of 


J:'//,, 


7eqe/'a6le  /i\/s. 


1 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  141 

maturity,  roasted  on  the  stem, — and  if  not  pluck- 
ed, fell  to  the  ground  in  the  course  of  ei^ht 
hours,  and  were  succeeded  by  another  set,  which 
passed  through  the  same  singular  changes.  Mrs. 
Fox  occasionally  saw  parties  dining  in  groves, 
whose  table  was  supplied  directly  from  the  tree 
with  this  animo-vegetable  diet.  These  vegeta- 
ble pigs  were  never  taken  before  ripe  ;  those  in 
the  growing  state  seemed  lively,  tied  as  they 
■were  at  the  extremity  of  a  twig,  a  hundred  feet 
high,  working  their  little  feet  and  sweeping  in- 
sects with  their  slender  whip-lash  tails  in  frolic- 
some playfulness. 

Another  tall,  bushy  tree,  not  unlike  an  oak, 
bore  the  true  Turkey  sheep, — but  they  were 
necessarily  dressed  for  the  table,  though  no  kind 
of  cooking  was  required.  It  appeared  that  by 
taking  off  the  hide,  the  action  of  the  common 
air  imparted  to  the  meat  the  sapid  quality  re- 
quired, to  be  relished.  Poultry,  much  larger 
than  any  species  sold  in  our  markets,  together 
with  ducks,  snipes,  woodcocks,  pigeons,  &lc. 
are  all  produced  on  trees,  and  drop  off,  the  mo- 
ment they  are  eatable.  Thus  I  might  particu- 
larize an  infinitude  of  delicacies,  of  an  animal 
character,  produced  in  this  extraordinary  man- 
ner, showing,  incontestibly  that  they  were  ex- 
12* 


142  A   JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN. 

pressly  designed  for  the  sustenance  of  solarian 
man. 

With  the  exception  of  these  vegeto-animated 
productions,  no  animals  e;sist  in  the  sun.  In- 
telligent beings,  and  those  of  surpassing  come- 
liness, are  the  exclusive  possessorsof  that  divine 
region.  The  population  is  prodigiously  numer- 
ous, leading  Mrs.  Fox  to  the  opinion  that  death 
has  no  victims  there.  This  probably  arose  from 
the  consideration  of  the  magnitude  of  the  Sun, 
and  the  ample  provision  made  for  sustaining 
multitudes  upon  multitudes,  beyond  all  human 
computation. 

Neither  dwellings  or  temples  marred  the  res- 
plendent beauty  of  this  angelic  residence  of  pu- 
rified man.  Nothing  but  the  clear  sky  above 
canopies  the  dwellers  of  that  unsurpassed  world, 
who  offer  up  their  regular  adorations  at  specific 
periods,  on  magnificent  altars  fabricated  out  of 
precious  stones.  Some  of  those  are  equal  to  the 
Egyptian  pyramids  in  perpendicular  altitude, 
though  far  exceeding  them  at  the  base.  They 
present  much  the  same  appearance  that  the 
White  Mountains  would,  were  the  principal  ele- 
vations hewn  into  gigantic  cones  ;  the  sides  are 
so  gradually  inclined  that  people  could  ascend 
and  descend  with  perfect  ease. 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  1 43 

Around  and  on  the  angles  of  those  resplendent 
points  of  worship,  millions  were  often  seen  kneel- 
ing ;  all  facing  the  apex,  on  which  stood  the  sup- 
posed pontifexmaxiraus,  with  his  extended  hands 
raised  in  the  attitude  of  blessing  the  immense 
assembly  below.  No  symptom  of  idolatry  was 
detected,  if  the  expression  of  the  face,  the  up- 
raised eye,  the  spontaneous  genuflexions  of  the 
whole  group  at  once,  did  not  betray  it.  No 
works  of  art  were  presented  on  any  part  of  the 
grand  empire  of  the  Sun,  with  the  exception  of 
these  ihimitable  altars,  which,  after  all,  may 
have  been  provided  in  the  beginning  of  time,  by 
the  same  hand  which  fashioned  all  things. 

Neither  clouds,  rain,  hail,  snow  nor  sleet  is 
shown  in  the  sun  ;  even  dews  are  not  required 
to  nourish  the  plants,  for  they  draw  from  the  clear 
fountain  in  which  they  keep  root,  all  the  ele- 
ments of  their  natures  without  sunshine  or  moon- 
light :  independently  of  all  those  ordinary  sources 
of  vitality,  a  mild  light,  emanating  from  no  recog- 
nized point,  is  universally  diffused,  nor  does  it 
ever  vary  in  strength  or  intensity  ;  it  is  forever  the 
same.  The  day  is  as  eternal  as  all  the  other  phys- 
ical properties  of  the  sun ;  for  no  night  spreads  a 
sombre  darkness  over  the  gilded  landscape.  Both 
the  temperature  of  the  climate  and  the  loveliness 


144  A   JAUNT    TO   THE    SUN. 

of  nature  in  all  her  millions  of  multiplied  forms, 
contributes  to  make  man  there,  what  he  should 
be  here — pi^re  in  heart,  and  elevated  in  character. 
One  government  stretches  its  jurisdiction  over 
the  entire  sun  ;  and  by  analogy,  therefore,  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  one  language  is  uni- 
versally spoken.  Monarchy  has  no  foothold  in 
that  great  central  world  ;  a  democracy  therefore 
is  the  probable  form.  But  the  charm  of  the  sys- 
tem arises  from  an  exhibition  of  the  fact,  that 
one  person  is  precisely  as  good  as  another,  and 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  just  as  capable  of 
wielding  the  government  as  another.  All  are  on 
the  footing  of  equality  ;  every  individual  knows 
his  duty  and  is  disposed  to  do  it,  by  conforming 
to  the  requisitions  of  society,  the  civil  and  the 
moral  law.  Nor  has  one  person  a  higher  intel- 
lectual development  than  another.  One  is  a 
complete  pattern-card  of  the  whole.  Peace,  good 
will,  honesty,  sobriety,  and  ardent,  elevated  af- 
fections characterize  the  Solarians,  from  one 
grand  division  of  its  geographical  limits  to  anoth- 
er, however  remote.  There  are  no  sterile  re- 
gions, no  waste  ground;  neither  is  there  an  im- 
perfect or  an  imbecile  intellect  to  be  found.  In 
a  word,  the  whole  condition  of  the  mind,  as  there 
exhibited,  shows  its  preparation  for  heaven.    As 


A    JAUNT    TO    THE    SUN.  145 

far  as  Mrs.  Fox  could  discover,  she  forms  the 
idea  tliat  the  sun  is  in  the  order  of  heavenly  res- 
idences, where  the  soul  is  refined,  and  the  gross- 
ness  of  our  nature  so  painfully  shown  on  earth, 
has  no  sustenance  there.* 

*  Because  there  is  a  plenty  of  spare  room  on  this  page^ 
the  author  had  a  great  mind  to  introduce  a  magnificent 
marginal  note,  by  way  of  economising  space.  This  sort  of 
management  shows  tact  in  the  writer,  and  a  strict  regard 
to  the  prevailing,  canting,  whining  hypocrisy  of  the  day, 
that 

"A  stitch  in  time, 
Saves  nine." 

In  other  words,  were  it  expressly  declared  in  this  place, 
that  I  entertain  a  most  sovereign  contempt  for  those  little 
men  in  great  shoes,  who  are  constantly  endeavoring  to 
impress  the  world,  that  is  the  gaping  admirers  of  goslin 
genius,  that  they  have  nothing  but  the  present  and  ever- 
lasting good  of  their  fellow  mortals  at  heart,  it  would  be 
understood  why  I  have  made  use  of  expressions  apparent- 
ly wanting  in  reverence.  The  shameful  license  of  dema- 
gogues, pedagogues  and  world-loving  priests,  who  cloak 
their  hypocritical  ambition  under  the  solemnities  of  devo- 
tional language,  as, — "  If  Heaven  wills  " — "  Providence 
permitting  " — "  The  good  of  your  soul  " — "  Charity ;  dear 
charity  " — "  There  is  nothing  abiding  here  hut  my  principles 
(f'C."  is  now  common  over  the  whole  country,  and  by  cop- 
ying this  perverse  style,  sinful  as  it  is  inappropriate,  on 
trifling  occasions,  only  shows  that  the  vulgarity  of  the  age, 
like  India  Rubber  Stock,  has  been  widely  diffused. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


LOCAL    LEARNING. 


The  author  about  ready  to  return  to  his  home  in  the 
country. — His  law-suit  brought  to  a  close. — Mrs.  Fox  grat- 
ifies him  with  an  evening  promenade. — She  attends  a  lec- 
ture at  Amory  Hall. — Sees  nobody  there  but  lank,  toothless, 
husband-hunting  old  maids. — Sees  a  loaf  of  Graham  bread 
for  the  first  time. — By  request,  goes  to  a  Free  Inquiry 
Meeting  in  Summer  Street. — Saw  a  man  personifying  the 
devil. — Felt  a  desire  to  take  all  the  children  found  there, 
home,  where  they  would  have  better  examples. — Mrs.  Fox 
makes  judicious  and  sensible  remarks  on  Sin. — Speaks 
decidedly  well  about  snatching  something. — Steps  into  the 
State  Street  Banks. — Sees  a  plenty  of  money  there. — Says 
much  to  restore  public  confidence  in  the  soundness  of  those 
institutions. — Intimates  that  the  Directors,  generally,  are 
in  hot  water. — An  uncomfortable  condition. — Bad  enough 
to  be  in  cold. — Visits  the  Legislature.— Speaks  of  a  for- 
mer trip  to  Albany. — Criticisms  on  New  York  brokers. — 
Visit  to  Dr.  Williams,  the  celebrated  foreign  occulist. — 
The  author  stops  short  for  want  of  paper,  but  very  hand- 
somely invites  the  reader  to  look  into  a  forth-coming  vol- 
ume. 

The  law  business  upon  which  I  had  been  long 
detained  in  Boston,  having  been  brought  to  a 


LOCAL    LEARNING.  147 

close,  JNIrs.  Fox,  although  actually  weary  of 
sight-seeing,  begged  that  her  clairvoyance  might 
be  put  in  requisition  again,  if  it  could  afford  me 
any  further  gratification,  before  leaving  the  city. 
Considering  that  this,  perhaps,  might  be  the  last 
opportunity  in  the  course  of  my  professional  life, 
for  experimenting  in  Animal  Magnetism,  her 
indulgence  was  acknowledged,  and  after  the 
usual  manipulations,  a  la  Bracket,  in  presence 
of  JMr.  Fox,  his  daughters,  a  reverend  gentle- 
man from  Pawtuxet,  and  a  medical  man  who  is 
distinguishing  himself  at  Nashua  for  his  success 
in  putting  factory  girls  to  sleep  in  their  looms, — 
a  new  order  of  inquiries  were  instituted. 

When  fairly  magnetized,  I  put  myself  in  mag- 
netic communication  with  her ; — "  And  low 
Madam,  we  will  wander  over  the  city  this  even 
ing  and  ascertain  what  so  many  assemblies  are 
about  in  the  principal  Halls  ;  for  I  noticed  on  the 
way  to  Chesnut  Street,  that  the  sidewalks  were 
thronged  with  people,  who  were  branching  off 
towards  Amory  Hall,  the  xVrtist's  Gallery,  and 
a  famous  banking  institution  in  State  Street." 

Our  first  call  was  at  Amory  Hall,  a  beautiful 
apartment  in  the  occupancy  of  various  associa- 
tions. I  suppose  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  ap- 
prise the  reader  again,  that  neither  of  us  left 


148  LOCAL    LEARNING. 

Mrs.  Fox's  parlor,  although  her  feet  were  in 
motion,  as  though  we  were  actually  promenad- 
intr.  Doors  sometimes  are  douhtless  in  a  similar 
somnambulic  condition,  as  they  pant,  paw  and 
bark  in  their  sleep  precisely  as  they  do  in  the 
chase. 

When  Mrs.  Fox  arrived  at  the  east  end  of 
West  Street,  she  hesitated  a  moment,  looked  up, 
as  though  searching  for  a  sign,  and  after  a  little 
reflection,  said  "  There  must  be  great  doings 
overhead."  "  Well,  madam,"  said  the  Nashua 
doctor,  "  here  is  a  bill  on  the  Commonwealth 
Bank,  for  paying  the  entrance  fee."  Fortunate- 
ly, not  being  in  communication  with  her,  she 
did  not  hear  what  he  said,  and  of  this  I  was 
particularly  glad,  knowing  how  much  she  would 
have  considered  herself  insulted.  Only  the  day 
before,  in  a  shopping  excursion,  she  vainly  at- 
tempted to  purchase  a  spool  of  thread  the  whole 
length  of  Washington  Street,  as  no  one  would 
take  a  single  bill  in  her  wallet,  which  happened 
to  be  of  the  Commonwealth,  American,  Kiiby, 
Fulton,  Franklin,  Hancock  and  some  other 
equally  abused  Banks.* 

*  It  was  the  President  of  a  Boston  Bank,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-eight,  an 
era  in  history,  considering  the  literary  character  of  the 


LOCAL    LEARNING  149 

She  expressed  her  surprise  at  the  crowd  of  fe- 
males who  were  urj^ing  their  way  up  stairs  ;  "  ten 
women  to  one  man."  Pretty  soon,  Mrs.  Fox 
considered  herself  comfortably  seated  on  a  settee 
exactly  before  a  short,  square-built  man,  who  had 
possession  of  the  desk,  who  raved  like  one  pos- 
sessed of  seven  evil  spirits.  She  was  at  first 
alarmed  ;  but,  on  looking  about  the  room,  she  saw 
such  a  multitude  of  her  own  sex,  that  her  fears 
subsided,  being  certain  that  if  they  could  remain 
with  an  unchained  maniac,  with  impunity,  she 
certainly  could — invisible  to  all  but  herself. 

Mrs.  Fox  watched  the  ranting  speaker  with 
marked  attention,  to  discover,  by  his  wild  contor- 
tions, if  possible,  what  his  object  was  ;  for  artic- 
ulative  language,  however  boisterous,  gave  [no 
sound  to  her  quiescent  ears,  unless  she  was  put 
in  magnetic  communication. t 

age,  who  ornamented  liis  hou.se  with  a  Portorico,  in  front, 
and  a  Pizarro  in  the  rear.  For  further  particulars,  how 
he  could  read,— how  lie  could  write,  and  how  he  was 
made  a  fool  of  by  unprincipled  scoundrel?,  for  which, 
however,  he  was  not  morally  guilty,  cons  alt  the  legislative 
committee  on  Banks.  So  much  for  the  literary  emporium 
in  1838 ! 

t  Only  a  very  few,  even  when  put  in  magnetic  com- 
munication, seem  to  understand  the  advantages  accruing 
13 


150  LOCAL    LEARNING. 

After  watching  the  violent,  shoulder-dislo- 
cating, sesawings  of  the  person  whom  she  verily 
began  to  imagine  had  just  escaped  from  a  mad- 
house, and  wondering  who  he  could  be,  and 
what  he  was  saying  to  keep  so  many  lank,  pale- 
faced,  toothless  old  maids  fast  in  the  seats  three 
hours  at  a  sitting,  with  an  air  of  exultation,  his 
light  grey  eyes  protruding  like  sprouts  on  a 
chenango  potato,  the  centre  of  attraction,  the 
man  in  the  pulpit  finally  held  up  a  loaf  of  bread, 
which  was  whirled  over  and  over,  that  all  its 
surfaces  might  be  seen,  with  as  much  activity  as 
a  juggler  would  play  with  a  tumerous  ball.  With 
a  fixed  look  of  earnestness,  a  terribleness  which 
nothing  but  a  portrait  of  his  own  face  can  express, 
the  broad  top  of  the  loaf  was  turned  to  the  audi- 
ence, with  an  assurance  of  manner  which  seemed 
to  say,  "  Here  is  the  staff  of  life  ;  here  is  longevi- 
ty ;  here  are  concentrated  the  laws  of  vitality  ; 
here  is  anti-indigestion  ;  anti-all  things  ;  the  el- 
ements of  famine  in  the  shape  of  a  loaf,"  and 

from  it.  Perhaps  the  scientific  corps  of  the  explorlDg  ex- 
pedition might  throw  some  light  on  this  subject,  having 
been  frequently  magnetized  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 
It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  Governor  Dickinson  is 
an  old  woman  in  disguise,  possessing  the  electrical  proper- 
ties of  the  gymnotiTS  family  of  eels.  In  the  spring  he  will 
have  liberty  to  resume  the  petticoat  again,  in  New- Jersey. 


"^Jaence  ot ^ Life 


LOCAL    LEARNING.  151 

she  read  the  stamped  letters  on  the  branny  up- 
per crust,  as  the  clear  gas-light  fell  npon  it, 
"  Graham. — Admittance  four-pence  !  " 

Mrs.  Fox,  on  retiring  from  the  hall,  expressed 
her  pointed  disgust  at  the  exhibition.  She  did 
not  recognize  a  ladi/  in  the  group.  Being  near 
Summer  Street,  I  besought  her  to  step  into  a 
Gallery  close  by.  She  had  no  sooner  entered 
than  she  recoiled  at  the  sight  of  those  whom  she 
saw  there.  Old  men,  whose  white  hairs  were 
the  evidence  of  their  proximity  to  the  grave; 
women,  who  might  be  respectable,  if  they  would 
flee  from  the  pollution  that  is  tainting  them  in 
the  society  of  God-defying  sinners,  who  go  there 
to  devise  new  modes  of  sowing  the  fruitful  seeds 
of  moral  and  physical  corruption  ;  and  little  chil- 
dren, training  up  for  refined  misery  here,  and, 
Mrs.  Fox  fears,  for  eternity,  were  gathered  round 
a  large,  frosty-headed  individual  in  a  blue  cloak, 
who  presented  to  his  deluded  followers  a  some- 
what favorable  specimen  of  human  physiognomy; 
but  alas!  this  wretched  imbecile  looked  but  on 
a  mask,  which  concealed  from  all  eyes  except 
those  of  Mrs.  Fox,  the  hideous  visage  of  the 
prince  of  darkness.  Behind  him,  against  the 
wall  hung  several  portraits  of  his  infernal  majes- 
ty's ministers,  disguised,  however,  by  being  la- 


152  LOCAL    LEARNING. 

belled  on  the  forehead  "  Reason,  Genius  of  Phi- 
losophy ^  Thomas  Paine,  Frances  Wright  Du- 
rismont  Sf  Co.  This  assembly  were  making 
preparations  to  celebrate  the  birth-day  of  that 
vile  debauchee,  that  infamous  wretch,  that  libel 
on  virtue,  Paine.  Mrs.  Fox  repented  of  ever 
having  seen  the  congregation  of  corruptionists, 
whose  daily  existence  is  prolonged  through  the 
sparing  mercies  of  that  benevolent,  happiness- 
dispensing  God,  whom  they  meet  together  to 
curse.  "  But,  O !  the  dreadful  termination  of 
such  a  life  of  imprecation,"  said  Mrs.  Fox.  "  I 
felt  as  though  I  could  not  refrain  from  snatching 
those  innocent  children,  let  into  that  rented  hell 
for  gradual  initiation  into  vice,  as  I  would  have 
saved  a  casket  of  precious  jewels  from  a  burning." 

These  were  the  last  words  of  Mrs.  Fox  con- 
cerning Free  Inquirers. 

The  evening  was  advancing,  and  instead  of  be- 
ing requested  to  return  to  either  place  in  which 
she  had  been  making  clairvoyant  investigations, 
we  unanimously  besought  her  to  visit  the  cash- 
ier's room  of  certain  banking  offices  in  State 
Street.  She  was  interested  in  several  of  them, 
as  an  owner  of  stock,  and  the  condition  of  their 
vaults  was  worth  attending  to. 

More  than  two  hours  sped  their  way  over  the 


Fj-ee  A/ic/iurv 


LOCAL    LEARNING. 


153 


clock-dial  before  Mrs.  Fox  would  answer  a  ques- 
tion. Her  heart  beat  prodigiously  fast,  and  the 
perspiration  trickled  down  her  fair  forehead  copi- 
ously. "Well,  husband,"  said  she,  "  I  am  per- 
fectly satisfied  of  the  soundness  of  our  Boston 
Banks.  Why  they  have  double  the  specie  in 
the  yaults  that  it  is  supposed  they  possess  ;  the 
adroit  managers  of  these  important  institutions 
are  laying  a  deep  and  firm  foundation  for  a 
banking  stability,  that  can  never  be  affected 
again  by  any  concurrence  of  adverse  circum- 
stances, let  the  General  Government  exert  itself 
as  it  may  to  crush  our  merchants.  But  I  must 
confess  that  I  was  surprised  at  the  vast  amount 
of  notes  on  hand  which  cannot  be  paid.  Some 
of  the  directors  are  the  debtors  too ;  and  I  saw 
them  casting  interest  upon  paper,  the  principal  of 
which  they  never  calculate  to  liquidate.  There 
will  be  sad  overturning  in  property  the  present 
year.  Many  who  keep  their  coaches  will  keep 
them  at  the  expense  of  the  widow  and  the  or- 
phan's tears  ;  but  their  notes  will  never  be  paid — 
not  because  they  are  unable  to  do  it,  but  because 
it  is  a  species  of  fraud  that  society  winks  at,  but 
dares  not  punish." 

On  the  following  morning,  before    the  mag- 
nectic  fluid  infused  into  her  system  the  prece- 


154  LOCAL    LERANING. 

ding  evening,  became  wholly  inoperative,  she 
strolled  in  spirit  into  the  house  of  representatives, 
where  there  was  the  external  promise,  apparent- 
ly, of  rational  entertainment.  To  her  amaze- 
ment, however,  a  very  few  only,  of  the  hundreds 
who  were  seated  on  the  comfortable  green  cush- 
ions provided  by  the  sergeant  at  arms,  seemed 
to  be  impressed  with  the  responsibilities  devolv- 
ing upon  them  in  their  legislative  capacity. 
More  than  two  thirds  of  the  members  were  read- 
ing newspapers,  pamphlets  or  letters,  seemingly 
regardless  of  the  character  of  the  business  before 
them.  A  portion  of  the  remainder  were  con- 
stantly lounging  from  one  place  to  another,  to 
the  annoyance,  in  most  instances,  of  those  upon 
whom  they  called  ;— and  the  last  half  of  the  un- 
appropriated third,  were  constantly  on  the  qui 
Vive  to  get  a  chance  to  rise  and  say  "  Mr. 
Speaker," — which  is  about  all  that  one  half  of 
the  speeches  amount  to  in  the  course  of  a  ses- 
sion. 

While  watching  the  modus  operandi  of  par- 
limentary  proceedings,  which  were  singularly 
new  to  her,  she  noticed  that  two  or  three  gentle- 
men contrived  to  speak  on  every  subject,  whether 
they  knew  any  thing  about  the  matter  or  not. 
One  everlasting  clatter  of  the  tongue  seem  to 


LOCAL    LEARNING.  155 

characterize  them  in  a  special  manner  from  all 
the  others.  They  are  those  who  "  darken  coun- 
cil hy  words,  without  knoivledge.''  They  were 
evidently  quite  exhausted  by  such^^unceasing  pul- 
monary efforts,  and  yet  they  never  allowed  an 
opportunity  to  escape  of  having  the  last  word. 

Mrs.  Fox  felt  an  inward  conviction  that  those 
everlasting  talkers  had  no  influence,  whatever ; 
and  that  the  interests  of  the  Commonwealth 
were  positively  neglected  while  these  gabbling 
fungi  are  permitted  to  prate  forever  about 
nothing.  She  saw  that  the  house  was  perfectly 
indifferent  to  their  perpetual  speeches.  The 
speaker  appeared  so  utterly  spirit  broken  in 
being  compelled  to  witness  many  horrible  mur- 
ders of  the  king's  English,  as  she  has  been  in- 
formed are  committed  without  the  fear  of  con- 
sequences to  reputation,  twenty  times  a  day, 
that  she  had  no  desire  to  hear  what  was  repre- 
sented as  being  perfectly  nauseating,  by  those 
who  are  the  most  competent  judges. 

Mrs.  Fox  feels  assured,  from  a  personal  exami- 
nation, that  there  is  considerable  room  for  im- 
provement in  the  mode  of  managing  tkings  at 
the  State  House.  For  example,  in  tlie  Origon 
territory,  more  light  is  wanted  ;  and  in  Texas, 
more  understanding.    Speaking  trumpets  should 


lob  LOCAL    LEARNING. 

be  procured  at  the  expense  of  the  treasury  or 
*****  Esq.  be  seated  on  the  gallery  railing, 
by  order  of  the  committee  on  Insurance,  to  re- 
echo the  lucid  sentiments  and  to  transmit  by 
reflection,  the  coruscations  of  wit  which  now 
blazen  and  die  in  these  lateral  elevated  appen- 
dages of  Massachusetts  legislation. 

Unknown  to  her  friends,  having  never  di- 
vulged the  fact  before,  she  informed  me  that 
she  had  also  inspected  the  legislature  of  New 
York,  at  Albany.  There  were  more  demi- 
members  outside,  than  in, — with  their  pockets 
stuffed  with  multifarious  projects  for  benefiting 
the  people.  But  on  reading  some  of  them,  for 
no  envelope  was  proof  against  clairvoyance,  she 
was  ready  to  exclaim  in  the  governor's  ear — 

"  The  people  have  all  patriots  growii, 

They  talk  of  public  good  and  mean  their  own." 

Brokers,  principally  from  New  York,  were 
extremely  numerous  about  the  Capitol.  When- 
ever one  of  them  could  nab  a  member  by  the 
button,  he  was  sure  to  exhibit  very  cogent  rea- 
sons for  being  listened  to  awhile.  Whether 
certificates  of  stock  were  offered  below  par,  or 
a  plan  by  which  the  representative  could  escape 
the  responsibilities  which  the   law  held,  in  ter- 


LOCAL    LEARNING,  157 

rorem  over  the  head  of  a  manager  of  a  mis- 
managed monied  institution,  was  not  clearly 
ascertained.  Both  occasionally  gave  evident 
indications  of  being  in  the  utmost  perplexity. 
She  observed  that  the  whole  assembly  were 
taking  the  Matchless  Sanative,  supposed  to  be 
an  infaJible  remedy  for  all  political  disorders  in 
the  State. 

She  also  made  a  survey  of  the  operating  room 
of  a  very  celebrated  foreign  occulist,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  opening  the  eyes  of  the  great  poten- 
tates of  Europe.  Louis  Philip  is  entirely  indebted 
to  him  for  that  distinctness  of  vision  with  which 
he  perceives  the  designs  of  those  opposed  to  the 
aggrandizement  of  his  royal  household.  Know- 
ing something  of  this  gentleman's  wide-spread- 
ing philanthropy  in  the  city  of  Boston,  it  was  ex- 
tremely pleasant  to  discover  that  his  "  own  pur- 
chased "  house  in  New  York  was  the  reward  of 
disinterested  benevolence.  Mrs.  Fox  was  not 
pained  by  the  sight  of  blind  processions,  as  in  for- 
mer seasons,  grouping  their  way  to  the  benefac- 
tor's residence.  A  perfect  calm  reigned  within, 
and  the  doctor  sat  like  a  philosopher,  over  a  tub 
of  rain-water,  filling  small  phials,  labelled  "sight 
TO  THE  BLIND."  ''Neither  advice  or  medicine 
given  by  Dr.  Williams^  ex-occulist  to  the  king  of 
14 


158  LOCAL    LEARNING, 

Brobdinag,  without  an  advance  fee  of  fifty  doU 
lars.  Applicants  cannot  he  admitted  without  a 
recommendation  of  some  ivell-knoion  clergyman," 

Having  learned  that  he  is  hourly  expected  to 
re-visit  the  metropolis  of  the  north,  the  scene  of 
his  former  meritorious  exploits  on  the  pur-blind 
optics  of  the  suffering  community,  I  indulge  a 
hope  that  he  will  be  received  with  that  eclat 
which  is  due  to  such  an  illustrions  character. 
Never  was  there  a  time  when  the  people  so 
much  needed  to  have  their  eyes  opened  by  a 
skilful  hand,  as  at  the  present  moment. 

1  was  on  the  point  of  giving  another  paragraph 
on  the  principles  of  banking  in  Massachusetts, 
with  a  learned  comment  on  the  policy  of  the 
legislature,  and  what  the  General  Court  is  called 
upon,  by  the  threatening  aspect  of  the  times,  to 
do,  to  save  the  Commonwealth,  when  I  came 
abruptly  to  the  bottom  of  the  sheet,  on  which 
there  was  no  room  for  a  dissertation  ;  so  the 
reader  is  respectfully  referred  to  my  next  volume 
for  a  continuation  of  Mrs.  Fox's  discoveries, 
while  under  the  unexplained  influences  of  Ani- 
mal Magnetism. 


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